PRECAUTION AND ETHNOBIOLOGY: INFLUENCING THE SCIENTIFIC AGENDA

[ Precautionary Principal ]

 

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Subject:  The Precautionary Principle-----
Date:      Sat, 09 Sep 2000 09:31:11 -0400
From:        Stephen Tvedten <steve@getipm.com>
Organization:     Get Set Inc. (www.getipm.com)

To:     Paul Helliker <phelliker@cdpr.ca.gov>
          Director, State of California, Department of Pesticide Regulation 

Dear Mr. Helliker, I thought you might be interested in the following excerpt on the words "precautionary principle":  PRECAUTION AND ETHNOBIOLOGY: INFLUENCING THE SCIENTIFIC AGENDA By Nancy Myers.

The precautionary principle has been part of the Code of Ethics of the International Society of Ethnobiologists (ISE) since November 1998. The relevant paragraph is the following:

"Principle of Precaution: This principle acknowledges the complexity of interactions between cultural and biological communities, and thus the inherent uncertainty of effects due to ethnobiological and other research. The Precautionary Principle advocates taking proactive, anticipatory action to identify and to prevent biological or cultural harms resulting from research activities or outcomes, even if cause-and-effect relationships have not yet been scientifically proven. The prediction and assessment of such biological and cultural harms must include local criteria and indicators, thus must fully involve indigenous peoples, traditional societies, and local communities."

This is remarkable for several reasons. One is that by incorporating precaution into its Code of Ethics, the society became one of the first scientific organizations to take the principle seriously. Another is that applying the principle in the field of ethnobiology required a creative leap--extending consideration beyond environmental and health harm to include social and cultural forms of harm. That imaginative link was made even before the recent flurry of interest in the precautionary principle had hit its peak; most scientists had not yet heard about the principle.

Well Mr. Helliker, when will you begin to incorporate the precautionary principle into your Department of Pesticide Regulation?

(Note:  Remember the Precautionary Principal.. that's the one where government and chemical companies think twice before killing us)

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