Governments in many banana exporting countries face quite a dilemma. Policies that generally help out their economic situation tend to hurt their environmental situation. They seem to be mutually exclusive. The Banana Improvement Project has made many strives to make this problem not quite so severe. The main environmental benefit of the Banana Improvement Project is the reduction in the use of pesticides. The first way that the BIP has helped reduce the amount of pesticides used by creating better, more effective chemicals to ward off pests and diseases. More effective chemicals mean fewer sprayings. Secondly, by helping to develop better bananas that are more disease and pest resistant, even fewer sprayings are needed. Obviously, the Banana Improvement Project has had a very beneficial effect on the environments of banana producing countries all over world.

The benefits from a reduction in sprayings of bananas with preventive chemicals cannot be stressed enough. Everyone seems to be better off by it. Neighboring industries such as fisheries now do not face so much the run off of dangerous chemicals from their banana producing friends. The workers on the banana plantations will face lesser exposure to these dangerous chemicals, whose presence has been shown to be associated with detrimental effects to workers' health. Even tourism industries can benefit from a better environment. Finally, the BIP has caused increased efficiency, allowing more land to be left alone instead of being used for bananas.