Evolving ecosystems approaches to fruit insect pest management

Abstract Ecological studies of agroecosystems have demonstrated both significant environmental problems associated with the intensive physical and chemical control of highly simplified crop production systems, and the largely untapped opportunities for knowledge-intensive bioecological design and management of more complex systems. Barriers for change often over-emphasise economics and lack of appropriate knowledge and technology. Equally important are lack of awareness, particularly of long-term and global implications of current practices, lack of vision, disempowerment and feelings of isolation, and inconsistencies between professed values and actual practices. To address these barriers and to facilitate change, an overlapping three-stage – efficiency, substitution, redesign (ESR) – evolutionary approach to pest control has been developed.