At their fourth meeting, in considering the need for further guidance on specific aspects of risk assessment and risk management, the Parties established an Open-ended Online Expert Forum and an Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group (AHTEG) on Risk Assessment and Risk Management.
At their fifth meeting, the Parties welcomed the “Guidance on Risk Assessment of Living Modified Organisms” developed through collaborative efforts between the Open-ended Online Expert Forum and the AHTEG.
The Parties noted that the Guidance is a document in evolution and that its objective is to provide a reference that may assist Parties and other Governments in implementing the provisions of the Protocol with regards to risk assessment, in particular its Annex III and, as such, the Guidance is not prescriptive and does not impose any obligations upon the Parties. The Parties also noted that the first version of the Guidance required further scientific review and testing to establish its overall utility and applicability to living modified organisms (LMOs) of different taxa introduced into various environments.
A scientific review was carried out by Parties, other Governments and relevant organizations from 4 February to 15 March 2011. A total of 33 submissions were received, of which 18 were from Parties, two from other Governments and 12 from organizations. All submissions received through the
scientific review are available in the Biosafety Clearing-House (BCH). The scientific review was followed by two rounds of online discussions under the Open-ended Online Expert Forum (see
discusssions) and a face-to-face meeting of the AHTEG (see
report) to deliberate on ways to revise and improve the Guidance.
As the result of the above deliberations, a revised version of the
Guidance (revised on 15 September 2011) was developed.
