2018 Volume 67 Issue 3 Pages 261-267
The precautionary principle originated from Germany and was gradually adopted in international laws and then in individual national laws. Its application, however, had many pros and cons because prevention measures are introduced despite the high uncertainty of their effects. This paper provides an overview of the acceptance processes of precautionary principle and certain related terms, such as “prevention principle” and “precautionary approach.” The precautionary principle could be regarded as a risk-avoiding choice among the wide spectrum of risk management decisions. Application rules of the precautionary guidelines described by the European Commission are also explained.
In the next step, schemes and their inherent uncertainty in an endpoint selection of an ecological risk assessment are discussed. Because of the large uncertainty in an ecological risk assessment, the application of precautionary principle is indispensable in the introduction of protection measures. In this respect, consideration of sustainability and risk is necessary to build consensus for protection measures among stakeholders.
