Biological control is developing rapidly all over the world, and the progress in basic research, application technology and product development are significant in Europe, the Americas, Asia and Australasia. With request of environmental protection and green development, bio-logical control pests have attracted a great deal of attention from all governments. The Chi-nese government has established “green growth and ecological development” as a great aim to build a future ecological civilization. Green, ecological and healthy development was the main theme of global development.
In order to facilitate the development of biological control worldwide, the First International Congress of Biological Control(ICBC-1), co-hosted by CAAS, the International Organization for Biological Control (IOBC) and the China Society of Plant Protection, was held in Beijing on May 14th-16th, 2018. Over 1,000 experts of biological control, from more than 40 countries, attended the congress, and 12 prominent experts were invited to give plenary lectures. In the congress, 160 academic reports, divided into 15 scientific sessions, were presented, and the following three critical aspects were discussed: 1) risk assessment of biological control and biosafety; 2) key factors interacting with biological control, for instance biodiversity, agroeco-systems, climate change, human health, social and economic development and the “One Belt and One Road” idea; 3) Research was presented on biological control products and technolo-gy, such as insect natural enemy, microbial pesticides, bioactive metabolites and small molecules, biological control in IPM systems, transgenic technologies for biological control, industrialization and market development of biological control. Based on the theme of “interdisciplinary biological control”, delegates engaged in broad and deep communication and discussion concerning the latest development of basic research, the integration of prod-ucts and technologies, producing great economic, social and ecological benefits. The congress was very successful, and the organizing committees have came to the following conclusions, and signed Beijing Declaration for Biological Control:
1. This congress was the First International Congress of Biological Control (ICBC). To support and promote the sustained development of international cooperation on biological control, we suggest that the congress should be held approximately every three years, being a summit meeting of biological control. We suggest the establishment of an ICBC coordinating com-mittee, consisting of previous chairs, global IOBC president and representatives from regional IOBC sections and CABI.
2. The purpose of the congress is to strengthen communication and cooperation between re-searchers, sharing scientific and technological achievements. In particular the congress pro-vides the only forum for integration of all aspects of biological control, and opportunity for all subdisciplines within biological control to interact. We should plan and promote scientific and technological innovation with a global perspective and promote the formation of an in-ternational scientific community of biological control researchers.
3. In order to control pests, weeds and diseases, we should promote “Prevention as the core, and integrated pest management (IPM) as the strategy”, with plant health, ecological harmo-ny, and green development addressed as the starting point. Ideally, biological control should be considered as the core means of IPM with chemical control remaining mainly as a tool for emergencies. The final aim is to manage plant diseases and insect pests under economic dam-age levels with sustainable approaches.
4. To date, China has made great progress in the research and application of biological con-trol, making breakthroughs on many key technologies and production processes of biological pesticides. There are currently over 260 bio-pesticides manufacturers in China, accounting for about 10% of the country’s pesticide producers. About 130,000 tons of bio-pesticides are pro-duced every year and bio-control technologies are applied on an accumulated areas of 25-35 million ha. Green development is an important direction for sustainable agricultural, innova-tion and conservation of natural ecosystems. Promoting comprehensive green, ecological de-velopment should become the future requirement of modern agriculture, and an important part of ecological civilization, which is the common demand of all mankind. Strengthen-ing the development of biological control is the basis for green devel-opment of agriculture. Finally, con-necting international experts and ac-ademic institutions is an effective strategy to improve the quality and safety of agricultural products, pro-tection of the environment and im-provement of human health.