A conceptual basis for the environmental monitoring of unapproved genetically modified plants in the canton Zurich

The global area of commercially grown, genetically modified plants (GMPs) has increased considerably since 1996 and amounted to around 114 million hectares in 2007. Current forecasts predict a further increase of this area to 200 million hectares by 2015. As existing experience in Switzerland and abroad has shown unapproved GMPs may enter the trade chain or the environment in spite of existing monitoring systems. Such instances have become possible due, among other things, to the different state of licensing in individual countries, the worldwide flow of goods and to unintentional mix-ups which can occur at different points in the trade chain.. The anticipated future increase of worldwide GMP cultivation could lead to more unapproved GMPs entering the environment. Under the Swiss Ordinance on the Release of Organisms into the Environment [Freisetzungsverordnung] the cantons are responsible for corrective action if unapproved GMPs would appear in the environment in Switzerland. To date Switzerland has no monitoring programme to identify whether unapproved GMPs occur in the environment and whether these potentially spread. The first step in establishing such a programme consists in developing a procedure helping to determine which GMPs are most likely to enter the environment, whether these could then become established and possibly spread. [...] The result of this work constitutes the basis on which a future environmental monitoring of unapproved GMPs could build on. The method developed will enable cantonal authorities to reach scientifically sound decisions as to whether and in which environment the monitoring of unapproved GMPs should take place. In addition to an evaluation of the probability of entry, a complete risk assessment needs to consider the magnitude of damage. The present report gives no information on the extent of damage that unapproved GMP could cause to humans, animals and the environment. Entries of unapproved GMP described in the report should therefore be understood as value-neutral events. It remains to be defined what authorities will judge undesirable. This political process must take place independently of the purely scientific assessment of entry probability. Any final decision taken by the authorities on implementing a monitoring programme of unapproved GMPs should therefore also be based on a damage definition still to be carried out. It is thereby essential to find criteria which can help determining where and to what extent the entry of unapproved GMP is perceived as being perturbing, undesirable or harmful.