Flowchart ("Roadmap") for risk assessment: the necessary steps to conduct risk assessment according to Annex III of the Protocol

In discussing the topic of risk assessment requirements for specific environments, I appreciate the overview prepared by Dr Helmut Gaugitsch on the issue of potential long-term effects of LMOs released into the environment, as it points out the challenges and the opportunities of the post-release monitoring as a possible additional mechanism to address the safe use of GMOs. This is because GMOs are going to be introduced in a variety of environments, each with specific and relevant characteristics that may be taken into account. I have been carefully following the discussions around the new technologies and the conditions for their safe application, taking into account the case of Brazil. Although only cassava among the main food crops was domesticated in Brazil, the country is center of origin of many wild relative and land races of other cultivated species such as rice, cotton, potatoes, and beans. In addition to this, and to the rich biodiversity present in the country, the Brazilian territory ranges from 5 degrees of Latitude North to ca. 32 degrees of Latitude South, i.e., the environment is widely diverse and have many specific climate and soil characteristics, and a web of big rivers connected among themselves by streams, channels and floods.  Our environmental law requires that the Gallery Forests (semi deciduous vegetation that surround rivers and springs) inside the farmers are preserved and that 50% of each farm area is not cultivated, but kept with natural vegetation to protect biodiversity.  All this variety and diversity is yet little known. And yet, some field trials of transgenic Eucaliptus are already under way in the country, and for these GMOs, many risk hypotheses can only be tested under field conditions and over a time that can be considered long when compared with transgenic crops.  So in my view, and based on the excellent contributions given in the different discussion forums, many knowledge gaps still exist in specific environments, not only in Brazil but in many other countries, particularly in the tropical and subtropical range of the world. I wish we could discuss this issue in the context of designing a flowchart for risk assessment based on annex III of the Protocol.