From Protection to Restoration: A Matter of Responsible Precaution

Climate change and human activities are the main reasons for the increasing degradation of ecological systems. Advances within modern biotechnologies, as genetic engineering and synthetic biology, hold promises for saving endangered species and revival of extinct species. The same biotechnologies are followed with concerns for unforeseen environmental harm. This has resulted in a call for regulation, including the application of the precautionary principle. There are, however, significant disagreements on how to apply the precautionary principle and how to handle risk. A key question concerns the meaning of the precautionary demand to avoid ‘morally unacceptable harm’ to the environment (UNESCO COMEST 2005) when applying new technologies. This needs further elaboration and we will draw some lessons from the controversies surrounding the introduction of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Some similarities are for instance related to how to acknowledge risk and uncertainties, the existence of systemic properties of ecosystems and how to study the effect of changes induced in ecosystems. It has been argued that risk claims and awareness to uncertainties depend on assumptions about which facts and values are to be considered and which are to be left out. This may have implications for what we consider to be environmental harm as well as how we regard the significance of environmental harm that is identified.