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The history and recent developments of conservation biological control (CBC) in the context of industrialized and small-scale agriculture are discussed from theoretical framework available in the Neotropical region. A historical perspective is presented in terms of the transition of the way pests have been controlled since ancestral times, while some of these techniques persist in some areas cultivated on a small-scale agriculture. The context of industrialized agriculture sets the stage for the transition from chemical pesticides promoted in the green revolution to the more modern concept of IPM and finds in conservation biological an important strategy in relation to more sustainable pest management options meeting new consumer demands for cleaner products and services. However, it also noted that conservation, considered within a more integrative approach, establishes its foundations on an overall increase in floral biodiversity, that is, transversal to both small-scale and industrialized areas. In the latter case, we present examples where industrialized agriculture is implementing valuable efforts in the direction of conservation and new technologies are envisioned within more sustainable plant production systems and organizational commitment having that conservation biological control has become instrumental to environmental management plans. In addition, a metanalysis on the principal organisms associated with conservation efforts is presented. Here, we found that hymenopteran parasitoids resulted in the most studied group, followed by predators, where arachnids constitute a well-represented group, while predatory vertebrates are neglected in terms of reports on CBC. Our final remarks describe new avenues of research needed and highlight the need of cooperation networks to propose research, public outreach, and adoption as strategic to educate costumers and participants on the importance of conservation as main tool in sustainable pest management. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13744-022-01005-1.

The study area pertains to the Chocó Biogeography, one of the most biodiverse areas in the world, where around 40,000 ha of rainforest has been cleared for oil palm plantations. We surveyed the ant species’ richness and diversity in four differently disturbed areas in Tumaco, Colombia, using pitfall traps and Winkler sacks. Study sites were two oil palm plantations of three- and seven- years’ existence, a peach palm plantation Bactris gasipaes of 20 years, and an area of secondary forest of 10 years. A total of 93 ant species or morphospecies, comprising 31 genera in 8 subfamilies were identified. The subfamily Myrmicinae had the highest number of species (57), followed by Ponerinae (10) and Formicinae (9). The hybrid palm oil plantations harbored 46 species (7 years) and 50 species (3 years), respectively, while the peach palm plantation was composed of 53 species, and the secondary forest had 62 species. Ectatomma ruidum was the most dominant species in the oil palm plots (≥ 80% of specimen), but significantly less in the peach palm and secondary forest. The most species-rich genera were Pheidole spp. (23) and Solenopsis spp. (13). No differences were observed in the ant species’ diversity between the secondary forest and peach palm, contrasting with the significant differences between the secondary forest and the two oil palm areas. A comparison with studies in natural areas suggests that the oil palm monocultures have dramatically reduced the species’ richness and that ten years of recovery does not bring back anything close to the original diversity.

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