CONCEPT PAPER
Biodiversity and Integrated Pest Management: Working Together for a Sustainable Future
A Proposed Conference in Manado, North Sulawesi, Indonesia
July 2013 (dates TBD)
Organizers: B. Merle Shepard (Clemson), Dantje Sembel (Sam Ratulangi University), and R. Muniappan (Virginia Tech/IPM CRSP) Sponsors: Integrated Pest Management Collaborative Research Support Program (IPM CRSP), International Association for the Plant Protection Sciences (IAPPS), and Sam Ratulangi University
One of the major conflicts relative to biodiversity preservation is between protecting the natural world and its various ecosystems and maintaining agricultural production systems. If we are to survive as a species, food production is paramount. But the gradual destruction of forests, watersheds, and other natural habitats — natural systems almost always associated with expanding agriculture — could lead to their eventual demise. Integrated Pest Management (IPM), an ecological approach to suppressing pest species, employs tactics that cause the least ecological disruption.
There is a need and urgency for proponents of IPM and biodiversity to work together, but they have rarely been considered as partners for a sustainable future.
This conference aims to bridge this divide by bringing together two key groups: those who study and appreciate the importance of biodiversity and IPM practitioners who help ensure that food and fiber production minimizes degradation of the environment. To work toward these goals, scientists, educators, NGOs, government officials, extension agents, and key farmer groups are invited to participate in the conference activities. While the major focus
will be about biodiversity and IPM in developing countries, many of the guiding principles can be applied to the developed world.
Farmers who practice IPM promote biodiversity on a day to day basis, and their participation is critical to the conference’s success.
Farmer Field Schools (FFS) have been the core of developing country IPM, as they emphasize an ecological approach to sustainable food production. FFS have a critical need for developing more field exercises that allow armers to understand the importance of IPM in supporting biodiversity for a sustainable future.
North Sulawesi, Indonesia, the conference site, has long been appreciated for its high biodiversity, so it is fitting that a conference on biodiversity and IPM be held here. Alfred Wallace spent considerable time in this region, collecting various kinds of insects and birds throughout the island of Sulawesi. Many of his ideas on evolution and natural selection, which paralleled those of Charles Darwin, were crystallized from his observations of high speciation in this area.
Presentations will be made by scientists from myriad fields, including vertebrate and invertebrate ecology, botany, and agri-forestry, as well as by specialists in various aspects of IPM. Possible topics include: pest management tactics that eliminate, reduce, or suppress pests (insects, plant pathogens and weeds); reduced reliance on synthetic chemical fertilizers via composting; use of biological materials such as vesicular arbuscular mycorrhiza VAM) and Trichoderma; biological control and host plant resistance; and other IPM tactics.
This conference will be held in July 2013 and is currently in the planning stages. If you would like further nformation, please contact the conference organizers: Merle Shepard (mshprd@clemson.edu), Dantje Sembel sembeldt@yahoo.co.id), or R. Muniappan (rmuni@vt.edu). More information will be posted on the IPM CRSP website (www.oired.vt.edu/ipmcrsp) and IAPPS website (plantprotection.org) as conference details are finalized.
