Economic value of arthropod biological control.

Abstract

Abstract Overall, biological control (use of natural enemies, such as predators, parasitoids and pathogens) potentially provides among the highest returns on investment available in integrated pest management (IPM) even while estimation of its economic value has received relatively little attention from entomologists, ecologists or economists (Naranjo et al., 2015). The economic value of biological control, and general approaches for its estimation, have been discussed and summarized in several excellent reviews (Headley, 1985; Carlson, 1988; Tisdell, 1990; McFadyen, 1998; Gutierrez et al., 1999; Perkins and Garcia, 1999; Hill and Greathead, 2000; Cullen et al., 2008; Waterfield and Zilberman, 2012; Naranjo et al., 2015). A central tenet in IPM is that pest management strategies should provide for economically efficient and sustainable solutions. Thus, a better understanding of the economic contribution of biological control, as a foundational element of IPM, will help strengthen adoption of this tactic for IPM more generally, and raise its stock among stakeholders and those that invest in this technology both privately and publicly. This chapter aims to build upon the review of Naranjo et al. (2015) by providing more detail on the concepts and methodologies of economic valuation in biological control, to summarize all known projects that have attempted to quantify the economic value of arthropod biological control (with particular focus on introductory and conservation biological control), and to ask how to balance the need for more routine and inclusive economic evaluations with the additional effort needed to spur greater adoption and investment in research and implementation.