ABSTRACT
The governments of the developing countries, development assistance organizations in the industrialized countries which promote agricultural projects, environmental protection groups and producers of pesticides have recognized that improper use of the environmental chemicals is an infrastructural problem. The use of biological methods might be one solution to this dilemma, but this approach is in the development stages. Moreover, tropical ecosystems are considered to be more susceptible to anthropogenic influences than systems in temperate latitudes. Few ecotoxicological data have been gathered in the developing countries to date. The objective must be to adapt the methods and concepts in the industrialized countries to the special conditions in the Third World, such as the lower-quality modes of application due to limited financial and personal resources. The main differences, depending on country, climatic region or ecosystem, must be taken into consideration for each situation.
