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How can legislation facilitate the use of biological control of arthropods in North America

The use of biological control agents is an integral component of biologically-based pest management strategies. Although there have been many success stories and biological control became synonymous with environmentally friendly pest management, during the last 20 years an increased awareness of biodiversity interactions resulted in concerns being raised about potential negative effects. The outcome has been pressure to improve regulatory oversight of biological control and make the process transparent. In North America, oversight of biological control agents has fallen primarily under federal law and provincial/state laws have occasionally influenced release of biological control agents. Federal laws used are associated with Plant Protection Acts because these regulate plant pests and biological control agents have been viewed as indirect plants pests. In Canada and Mexico this has worked well for regulating entomophagous biological control agents whereas, in the United States there were legal concerns that have now been addressed by including a definition of a “Biological Control Organism” in the U.S. Plant Protection Act. Plant protection laws are appropriate for regulating biological control agents because they are designed to address movement of living organisms associated with plants. Canada, Mexico and the United States are intricately linked both geographically and economically, and efforts have been made to harmonize the data requirements for submissions. The North American Plant Protection Organization (NAPPO) document, “Guidelines for Petition for Release of Exotic Entomophagous Agents for the