The Precautionary Principle in the Information Society

The Precautionary Principle aims to anticipate and minimize potentially serious or irreversible risks under conditions of uncertainty. Thus it preserves the potential for future developments. It has been incorporated into many international treaties and pieces of national legislation for environmental protection and sustainable development. However the Precautionary Principle has not yet been applied systematically to novel Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and their potential environmental, social, and health effects. In this article we argue that precaution is necessary in this field and show how the general principle of precaution can be put in concrete terms in the context of the information society. We advocate precautionary measures directed towards pervasive applications of ICT (Pervasive Computing) because of their inestimable potential impacts on society.     

The Precautionary Preference: An American Perspective on the Precautionary Principle

The precautionary principle, a familiar constituent of international and European environmental law, has only very recently entered the vocabulary of domestic environmental policy debates in the United States. The question naturally arises what role such a principle should play in American law. By breaking down statements of the precautionary principle into distinct ele ments, one can more readily find ways in which U.S. law reflects the precau tionary principle. This analysis reveals that American environmental law con tains precautionary elements and goals in many and varied settings, from the management of natural ecosystems, to pollution control standards, to risk assessment methodology. However, the precautionary approach appears in a highly diluted or compromised form. With rare exceptions, U.S. law balances precaution against other considerations, most importantly cost. Therefore, while precautionary elements are firmly entrenched in U.S. environmental law, it is more accurate to say that it reflects a precautionary preference rather than the precautionary principle.     

Unraveling the Chimera: A Corporate View of the Precautionary Principle

Current controversy regarding how and when the precautionary principle should be applied to the introduction of new technology has created a false dichotomy, a dichotomy between conventional, risk-based decision making and an alternative paradigm that seemingly denounces risk assessment. As we compare views of the precautionary principle relative to our own operating standards for ensuring human and environmental safety, we perceive no irreconcilable conflict. Due precaution is entirely consistent with sound, cost-effective management of the risks and uncertainties inherent in new technologies. The principle guides prudent risk management actions under a prescribed set of circumstances, i.e., potentially serious or irreversible risks, or incomplete characterization (high uncertainty). In order to enable technological innovation toward a more sustainable future, it is critical that any preventative measures taken under these circumstances be provisional in nature, pending adequate risk characterization. As with all risk management decisions, we contend that the principle requires consideration of a suite of factors beyond risk assessment, including political, social, legal and cultural considerations to tailor the measures proportionately to the risk at hand. Overall, we are encouraged to find relatively broad agreement in this interpretation with a number of key multinational governmental and trade institutions.     

What motivates ecological restoration?

Ecological restoration projects are motivated by diverse environmental and social reasons. Motivations likely vary between stakeholders or regions, and influence the approach taken to plan, implement, and monitor restoration projects. We surveyed 307 people involved in the restoration of native vegetation across Australia to identify their underlying motivations. We also elicited information on planning, implementation, and monitoring of restoration projects. We found that biodiversity enhancement is the main motivation for undertaking restoration, with biodiversity offsetting, water quality improvements, and social reasons as important secondary motivations. Motivations varied significantly by stakeholder type and region. Restoration projects primarily motivated by ecosystem service provision (e.g. water quality improvements and social reasons) sought less pristine ecological outcomes than projects motivated by biodiversity enhancement or offsetting. Rigorous monitoring designs (e.g. quantitative, repeatable surveys, and use of performance indicators) were rarely used in restoration projects, except for projects motivated by scientific research. Better alignment of different restoration motivations with the planning and monitoring of restoration projects should deliver greater benefits through setting appropriate objectives and evaluating outcomes against these objectives. These improvements will increase the capacity of the restoration practice to meet international biodiversity commitments and communicate restoration outcomes to stakeholders.     

基于生境等价分析法的胶州湾围填海造地生态损害评估

围填海造地的生态损害是指围填海造地所引致的海洋生态系统服务功能的下降,包括生物资源消失、生态调节功能减弱以及生物栖息地破坏等。针对胶州湾围填海造地规模及其生态影响,使用生境等价分析法,对围填海造地的资源和生态服务功能的受损程度和补偿规模进行了评估。结果表明,1988-2005年胶州湾填海造地的资源生态受损程度为41.33%,以退田还海作为修复工程,修复期为8a,在5%的折现率水平下,修复工程的规模应为22.47 km²,才能使被填海域的生态服务功能恢复到初始水平。这一结论可作为地方政府对胶州湾围填海造地实施生态修复建设和生态补偿管理的技术依据。     

The Precautionary Principle in Practice: Applying the Ashford Framework to Technological Risk

The precautionary principle reflects an old adage — an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Its four central components include: taking preventative action in the face of uncertainty; shifting the burden of proof to proponents of an activity; exploring a wide range of alternatives to possibly harmful actions; and increasing public participation in decision processes. Scholars in a range of fields have identified U.S. environmental laws, regulations, and decisions exhibiting precaution de facto. This study moves beyond the traditional treatments of the subject, the morass of definitions systematizing precaution into its basic elements. It poses a further question, within the current legal system and existing laws, how might the precautionary principle be implemented by modifying aspects of a statute? By applying a conceptual legal precautionary framework to a specific example of technological risk management, Washington State's energy facility siting statute, we reveal deficiencies in four areas: compensation issues; burden of proof; Type I or II error preferences; and systematic comparisons. Supplying these would, in all likelihood, ensure a more effective statute and process as well as an outcome consistent with legislative goals. However, were an explicit statement of the precautionary principle introduced, parties dissatisfied with an outcome would seek judicial review, and extensive litigation could counter the legislative mandate of abundant energy at a reasonable cost.     

基于生态系统服务的山水林田湖草生态保护修复研究——以南太行地区鹤山区为例

开展山水林田湖草生态保护修复是生态文明建设的重要内容,将生态系统服务评价成果与山水林田湖草生态保护修复工程相结合,以国家第三批山水林田湖草生态保护修复试点-河南省南太行地区鹤山区为例,探究生态系统服务评价成果在区域山水林田湖草生态保护修复中的应用。结果表明,近年来鹤山区生态系统服务价值整体呈下降趋势且生态环境破坏严重。其中,2014-2017年鹤山区各土地类型二级服务ESV减少了303.95万元。研究期内,水资源供给、气体调节功能、气候调节、净化环境、水文调节、土壤保持、生物多样性和美学景观等8项生态服务价值都出现不同程度的下降;在鹤山区生态保护修复工作中需要重点关注生态系统的水文调节、净化环境、土壤保持和生物多样性等服务功能,相应的生态保护修复工程应集中在河道生态修复与湿地保护、矿山生态环境修复与土地整治、森林及生物多样性保护修复;鹤山区山水林田湖草生态保护修复工程能够提升区域生态服务价值。其中,工程实施后的生态系统服务价值总量预计能达到36407.95万元,比2017年增加7741.96万元,增长率为27%且各项生态服务价值均有提升。研究结果对鹤山区山水林田湖草生态保护修复工程的实施有一定的指导性作用。     

Learning from the past: Diatoms as palaeoecological indicators of changes in marine environments

The North Sea is seriously threatened by a variety of pollution sources. Terrestrially derived effluents are causing extensive environmental damage and changes to ecosystems of both the offshore and coastal waters. Coastal and estuarine communities are being lost to reclamation projects, and there is the future threat of rising sea level associaed with global warming. The spatial and temporal extent of recent anthropogenic changes are largely unknown due to the paucity of background information. The possible role of palaeoecological methodology in providing ‘reference levels’ against which current status can be compared, and their importance for restoration and policy decisions, are presented. The usefulness of diatoms as environmental indicators is illustrated. The extent of natural and anthropogenic changes on coastal habitats are demonstrated by reference to the Holocene evolution of the coastline of The Netherlands. Possible profitable areas for further research are outlined,e.g. a diatom nutrient calibration data set for shallow marine embayments.     

Underpinning the precautionary principle with evidence: A spatial concept for guiding wind power development in endangered species’ habitats

The precautionary principle is an essential guideline in decision making, particularly for regulating novel developments with unknown or insufficiently proven environmental impact. However, due to the inherent component of uncertainty it has been widely criticized for being “unscientific”, i.e. hindering progress without sufficient evidence. The consequential postulation, that precautionary measures are only justified if the addressed threats are plausible and the measures reasonable, calls for methods to guide action in the face of uncertainty. Using the example of species conservation versus wind-farm construction, an expanding development with hypothesized – but unexplored – effects on our model species the capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus), we present an approach that aims at compensating the lack of knowledge about the threat itself by making best use of the available knowledge about the object at risk. By systematically combining information drawn from population monitoring and spatial modelling with population ecological thresholds, we identified areas of different functionality and importance to metapopulation persistence and connectivity. We integrated this information into a spatial concept defining four area-categories with different implications for wind power development. Highest priority was assigned to areas covering the spatial and functional requirements of a minimum viable population, i.e. sites where the plausibility for threat is highest, the uncertainty as regards importance for the population is lowest, and thus the justification for precautionary measures is strongest. This gradated approach may also enhance public acceptance, as it attempts to avoid either error-minimization bias (i.e. being too restrictive or permissive) the precautionary principle is frequently criticized for.     

The Precautionary Principle and Marine Environmental Protection: Slippery Shores,Rough Seas,and Rising Normative Tides

Law and policy implications of the precautionary principle in the field of marine environmental protection are explored in this paper in a three-part analysis. First, seven slippery aspects of the precautionary principle are highlighted, including confusion in terminology, definitional variations, definitional generalities, the spectrum of precautionary measures available, ongoing philosophical tensions and competing socioeconomic interests, debate over who should be responsible for making precautionary decisions, and limited interpretation by international tribunals. Second, the rather feeble precautionary responses to the tempestuous issues of climate change, hazardous chemicals, and overfishing are described. Third, the potential for the precautionary principle to synergize with human rights norms, such as the emerging right to a healthy environment, and other principles of sustainable development is discussed.     

Renewal ecology: conservation for the Anthropocene

The global scale and rapidity of environmental change is challenging ecologists to reimagine their theoretical principles and management practices. Increasingly, historical ecological conditions are inadequate targets for restoration ecology, geographically circumscribed nature reserves are incapable of protecting all biodiversity, and the precautionary principle applied to management interventions no longer ensures avoidance of ecological harm. In addition, human responses to global environmental changes, such as migration, building of protective infrastructures, and land use change, are having their own negative environmental impacts. We use examples from wildlands, urban, and degraded environments, as well as marine and freshwater ecosystems, to show that human adaptation responses to rapid ecological change can be explicitly designed to benefit biodiversity. This approach, which we call “renewal ecology,” is based on acceptance that environmental change will have transformative effects on coupled human and natural systems and recognizes the need to harmonize biodiversity with human infrastructure, for the benefit of both.     

Extrapolation, uncertainty factors, and the precautionary principle

This essay examines the relationship between the precautionary principle and uncertainty factors used by toxicologists to estimate acceptable exposure levels for toxic chemicals from animal experiments. It shows that the adoption of uncertainty factors in the United States in the 1950s can be understood by reference to the precautionary principle, but not by cost-benefit analysis because of a lack of relevant quantitative data at that time. In addition, it argues that uncertainty factors continue to be relevant to efforts to implement the precautionary principle and that the precautionary principle should not be restricted to cases involving unquantifiable hazards.     

Structural and functional responses of floodplain vegetation to stream ecosystem restoration

Most river restoration projects have applied relatively small-scale measures focused on improving specific instream conditions, with only limited outcomes for biodiversity in rivers and their adjacent riparian habitats. Here, we investigate the effects of both small- and large-scale restoration projects on floodplain vegetation across 20 European catchments. We focused on the roles of different restoration parameters (i.e., the number, spatial extent and type of restoration measure applied and restoration age) and specific environmental characteristics in regulating changes in plant diversity and trait composition following restoration. Among restoration characteristics, restoration type was the only significant determinant of plant community responses, with stream channel widening having the strongest effects, particularly on the diversity and composition of species traits favoured by increases in physical disturbance (e.g. flooding) and open habitat patch availability (e.g. plant growth form, life strategy and life span). Of the environmental variables, altitude and discharge were positively and most strongly related to responses of both species and trait diversity. Our results emphasise the value of (i) choosing relevant restoration measures that affect environmental conditions of importance for the target organism group and (ii) conducting restoration projects in environmental settings where the likelihood of restoration “success” is maximised.     

生态建设的理论分析

20世纪80年代以来,生态恢复逐渐成为生态学和环境科学研究的热点领域。总结了近年来有关生态恢复的众多研究成果,认为生态建设是人类理性行为参与下积极的生态恢复与重建过程,它具有复杂性、针对性、动态性和不确定性特征,受地理环境地域分异的影响,其类型多种多样。从方案运筹的角度,提出了生态建设的共性原则,包括面向区域的问题导向原则、目标的科学性原则、参与的广泛性原则和科学监测与评价原则。生态建设是一个不断试验、学习和优化的过程。具体包括问题识别、方案设计、决策、实施、监测与评价以及方案调整等重要环节。公众参与对于生态建设是一种很好的知识、信息和资源输入渠道,对活化生态建设的管理运行机制,提高生态建设决策的科学性和有效性能够发挥重要作用。以这些理论分析为依据,对中国生态建设中存在的主要问题展开深入剖析,并提出建立科学评价机制是提高生态建设有效性的核心方略。     

Revegetation rewilds the soil bacterial microbiome of an old field

Ecological restoration is a globally important and well‐financed management intervention used to combat biodiversity declines and land degradation. Most restoration aims to increase biodiversity towards a reference state, but there are concerns that intended outcomes are not reached due to unsuccessful interventions and land‐use legacy issues. Monitoring biodiversity recovery is essential to measure success; however, most projects remain insufficiently monitored. Current field‐based methods are hard to standardize and are limited in their ability to assess important components of ecosystems, such as bacteria. High‐throughput amplicon sequencing of environmental DNA (metabarcoding of eDNA) has been proposed as a cost‐effective, scalable and uniform ecological monitoring solution, but its application in restoration remains largely untested. Here we show that metabarcoding of soil eDNA is effective at demonstrating the return of the native bacterial community in an old field following native plant revegetation. Bacterial composition shifted significantly after 8 years of revegetation, where younger sites were more similar to cleared sites and older sites were more similar to remnant stands. Revegetation of the native plant community strongly impacted on the belowground bacterial community, despite the revegetated sites having a long and dramatically altered land‐use history (i.e. >100 years grazing). We demonstrate that metabarcoding of eDNA provides an effective way of monitoring changes in bacterial communities that would otherwise go unchecked with conventional monitoring of restoration projects. With further development, awareness of microbial diversity in restoration has significant scope for improving the efficacy of restoration interventions more broadly.     

Restoration of ecosystem services and biodiversity: conflicts and opportunities

Ecological restoration is becoming regarded as a major strategy for increasing the provision of ecosystem services as well as reversing biodiversity losses. Here, we show that restoration projects can be effective in enhancing both, but that conflicts can arise, especially if single services are targeted in isolation. Furthermore, recovery of biodiversity and services can be slow and incomplete. Despite this uncertainty, new methods of ecosystem service valuation are suggesting that the economic benefits of restoration can outweigh costs. Payment for Ecosystem Service schemes could therefore provide incentives for restoration, but require development to ensure biodiversity and multiple services are enhanced and the needs of different stakeholders are met. Such approaches must be implemented widely if new global restoration targets are to be achieved.     

Is the precautionary principle unscientific?

The precautionary principle holds that we should not allow scientific uncertainty to prevent us from taking precautionary measures in response to potential threats that are irreversible and potentially disastrous. Critics of the principle claim that it deters progress and development, is excessively risk-aversive and is unscientific. This paper argues that the principle can be scientific provided that (1) the threats addressed by the principle are plausible threats, and (2) the precautionary measures adopted are reasonable. The paper also argues that one may use epistemic criteria, such as consistency, coherence and explanatory power, to determine whether a threat is plausible, and that one may use practical considerations, such as effectiveness, proportionality, cost-effectiveness, realism and consistency, to determine whether a response to a threat is reasonable.     

The Nature Index: a general framework for synthesizing knowledge on the state of biodiversity

The magnitude and urgency of the biodiversity crisis is widely recognized within scientific and political organizations. However, a lack of integrated measures for biodiversity has greatly constrained the national and international response to the biodiversity crisis. Thus, integrated biodiversity indexes will greatly facilitate information transfer from science toward other areas of human society. The Nature Index framework samples scientific information on biodiversity from a variety of sources, synthesizes this information, and then transmits it in a simplified form to environmental managers, policymakers, and the public. The Nature Index optimizes information use by incorporating expert judgment, monitoring-based estimates, and model-based estimates. The index relies on a network of scientific experts, each of whom is responsible for one or more biodiversity indicators. The resulting set of indicators is supposed to represent the best available knowledge on the state of biodiversity and ecosystems in any given area. The value of each indicator is scaled relative to a reference state, i.e., a predicted value assessed by each expert for a hypothetical undisturbed or sustainably managed ecosystem. Scaled indicator values can be aggregated or disaggregated over different axes representing spatiotemporal dimensions or thematic groups. A range of scaling models can be applied to allow for different ways of interpreting the reference states, e.g., optimal situations or minimum sustainable levels. Statistical testing for differences in space or time can be implemented using Monte-Carlo simulations. This study presents the Nature Index framework and details its implementation in Norway. The results suggest that the framework is a functional, efficient, and pragmatic approach for gathering and synthesizing scientific knowledge on the state of biodiversity in any marine or terrestrial ecosystem and has general applicability worldwide.     

自然湿地生态恢复研究综述

湿地由于具有丰富的资源、独特的牛态结构和功能而享有“自然之肾”之称。为了更好地保护和开发利用湿地,世界各国都在积极采取措施阴止湿地的退化或消失,湿地的生态恢复与重建问题已成为生态学和环境科学的研究热点,在全面综述国内外湿地生态恢复研究进展的基础上,对湿地乍态恢复研究的重点和热点进行了探讨和分析,指出我国为做好湿地生态恢复工作尚需进一步加强湿地生态恢复的方法学、基础理论、应用技术和示范推广等方面的研究。     

The Default Value Approach to the Precautionary Principle

In science, when information is lacking, the reasonable response is to suspend judgement. When incomplete scientific information is to be used for decision-making purposes, such as regulation, the option of suspending judgement is not available. In such situations the precautionary principle may be used. One of several problems with the precautionary principle is that it is poorly defined and difficult to operationalize. We propose a way of operationalizing the precautionary principle through assigning cautious default values to variables that are needed in the risk analysis but are nevertheless unknown. A formalized model is introduced, in which the precautionary principle is interpreted in terms of default values of chemicals regulation. Four different methods for choosing default values (positive list, negative list, statistical expectation, and precaution) are discussed.