The characteristics of the intended use of an LMO and management practices associated with it, such as tilling and the use of pesticides, can provide valuable information and context for the risk assessment process. Understanding the intended use also helps a risk assessor to perform an exposure assessment starting with the environment where the LMO will be deliberately introduced followed by considering whether or not the LMO is likely to disseminate or persist outside of this environment.
To illustrate how the intended use can affect the likelihood of a risk posed by an LMO, a hypothetical case of an LM tree being used for wood production could be considered, in which the first flowering would occur after 15 years of planting, but logging would takes place after only 10 years. As such, the intended use would result in the LM tree being logged before its first flowering. Consequently, in this hypothetical case, the intended use would influence the likelihood of potential outcrossing of this LM tree.
