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Rio Declaration on Environment and Development
The Cartagena Protocol, which entered into force in 2003, promotes a precautionary approach enshrined in the fifteenth principle of the <anchor>Rio Declaration on Environment and Development</anchor>, which states, “Where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation.” In essence, if the scientific community is uncertain about how a new organism will impact the environment, this principle states that scientists should proceed with extreme caution. In general, the Cartagena Protocol attempts to balance between the propensity of advances in biotechnology to help countries protect their biodiversity and develop economically alongside the threats that biotechnology poses to biodiversity and human health if something were to go wrong.
Precautionary Approach
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[Marine and Coastal](/marine/default.shtml) // Precautionary Approach

Monday // 11.13.2006

# Precautionary Approach

Principle 15 of the [Rio Declaration on Environment and Development](/doc/ref/rio-declaration.shtml), adopted by the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1992, states that:

_“In order to protect the environment, the precautionary approach shall be widely applied by States according to their capabilities. Where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation.”_

In the [preamble of the Convention on Biological Diversity](/convention/articles.shtml?a=cbd-00) it is noted that:

_“Where there is a threat of significant reduction or loss of biological diversity, lack of full scientific certainty should not be used as a reason for postponing measures to avoid or minimize such a threat.”_

[Decision II/10](/decisions/default.aspx?dec=II/10) on conservation and sustainable use of marine and coastal biological diversity, adopted by the Conference of the Parties at its second meeting in Jakarta in November 1995, states that:

_“The work_ \[of the Secretariat on marine and coastal biological diversity\] _should not be impeded by the lack of full scientific information and will incorporate explicitly the precautionary approach in addressing conservation and sustainable use issues.”_

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