Argentina has over 100 years of experience in classical biological control, mostly based on the importation of biological control agents (BCAs) against arthropod pests. We present the state-of-the-art of the importation regulatory framework from the last 30 years to date. We also applied a part of a recent developed environmental risk assessment (ERA) methodology to analyze retrospectively the potential negative effects on non-target species of 15 BCAs (12 parasitoids and three predators) imported since 1996 in Argentina, supported by the published literature (Tier 1 Scoping Assessment and Tier 2 Screening Assessment). We demonstrated that the previously imported species could have negative effects on non-target species [Adverse Effect risk characterization > 5 for ERA categories 2 (Reduction of native natural enemies), 3 (Reduction in herbivory) and 4 (Reduction in valued species)], which would be worth evaluating with a Definitive Assessment (Tier 3) and field research to determine if any were actually occurring. We discuss some suggestions for government organizations, state officials and decision makers, scientific researchers, and biological control practitioners to improve the current evaluation for the introduction of new BCAs into Argentina.

阿根廷在经典生物防治方面有100多年的经验，主要基于进口的节肢动物害虫生物防治剂（BCA）。我们介绍了过去30年来最新的进口监管框架。我们还应用了最近开发的环境风险评估（ERA）方法的一部分，回顾了自1996年以来从阿根廷进口的15种BCA（12种寄生虫和3种捕食者）对非目标物种的潜在负面影响，并得到了已发表的文献的支持（ 1级范围评估和2级筛选评估）。我们证明了先前进口的物种可能对非目标物种产生负面影响[ERA第2类（减少天然天敌）的不利影响风险特征> 5，3（草食动物的减少）和4（珍贵物种的减少）]，这值得通过确定性评估（第3层）和实地研究来确定是否确实存在。我们讨论了一些有关政府组织，州官员和决策者，科学研究人员以及生物控制从业人员的建议，以改善当前对将新的BCA引入阿根廷的评估。