Introduction

Introduction
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This CD has been developed following five training courses in Brisbane on the Biological Control of Weeds and the publication by ACIAR (Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research) of a book arising out of these courses - Biological Control of Weeds: Theory and Practical Application, edited by Mic Julien and Graham White (1997).

The topics covered in this CD include:

	the theory underpinning the biological control of weeds;
	the various stages of a project, from its beginnings to evaluating the impact of agents after they have been released;
	techniques that may be usefully applied in a project; and
	contemporary issues and methods such as host range testing, use of fungi as control agents and selection of the most appropriate agents.

Some sections are purely methodology, e.g. propagating plants for rearing phytophagous insects and for host range testing, developing a list of plants for host range testing, or climate matching using a computer model. Others are case studies illustrating the decision making processes required, e.g. interpreting results from host range tests. Relevant theory is introduced, but approaches that have proven not to be useful in practice, such as ecologically and biologically based ranking systems for potential agents, and speculative issues for which little data are available, such as negative environmental impacts of weed biological control agents, are not discussed in detail.

In short, this CD provides an overview of the biological control of weeds with an emphasis on how to go about it. However, it is only a starting point and key material from the large literature on biological control of weeds is referenced throughout the CD.