The movement to increase the level of professionalism within the pest control industry is gaining momentum in Europe.
With the current Australian Government review of pest control industry training underway, CEPA, the European pest management services trade association, has announced an initiative to professionalise the industry across Europe.
CEPA represents businesses in 23 European countries in a challenging regulatory environment. As reported in its industry publication The Good Pest Manager, “there are still many countries where the provision of pest management services is entirely unregulated and unsupervised with no market entry requirements or operational standards” yet the European Union Biocides Directive is driving towards an agricultural and pest control market that minimises pesticide use.
With this in mind, CEPA aims to encourage companies to operate using an IPM (integrated pest management) approach – prevention and non-chemical management techniques as a first approach, with chemical use as a last resort. “CEPA now wants to encourage users of pest management services to work exclusively with pest management rms that abide by an integrated pest management approach, on the basis that such operators are better qualified and more sustainable.”
This initiative takes the form of a Memorandum of Understanding between CEPA and the member pest associations and the European and national associations that represent the sectors that use pest management services.
The main premise of the Memorandum is that CEPA will promise that its members, who obtain CEPA certification to con rm they meet the IPM standards set down by the European Standard EN 16636, will deliver high standards of professionalism. In return the partner association members will encourage their members to only use pest management companies with this CEPA certification.
CEPA believes this is a key initiative to drive professionalism, and meet the changing customer expectations and challenges of a more restrictive regulatory environment. For those ‘certified pest professionals’, it should be good for business too!
