BioRisk 8: 1-2 (20 | 3) . ee eras ar ea ari ets
doi: 10.3897/biorisk.8.5949 EDITORIAL & B lO R IS kK

www.pensoftonline.net/biorisk

GMO environmental impact monitoring

Wiebke Ziighart', Josef Settele’

| Bundesamt fiir Naturschutz, Konstantinstr. 110, 53179 Bonn 2 Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Rese-
arch — UFZ, Department of Community Ecology, Theodor-Lieser-Str. 4, 06120 Halle, Germany

Corresponding author: Wiebke Ziighart (wiebke.zueghart@bfn.de)

Received 8 July 2013 | Accepted 9 July 2013 | Published 8 August 2013

Citation: Ziighart W, Josef Settele J (2013) GMO environmental impact monitoring. BioRisk 8: 1-2. doi: 10.3897/
biorisk.8.5949

When new technologies are introduced and uncertainties for risks exist, appropriate
environmental monitoring of potential hazards is needed (EEA 2001). This also ap-
plies to genetically modified organisms (GMO). European regulations foresee an en-
vironmental monitoring for every GMO imported, processed, used for food or feed,
or cultivated (EC 2001). The aim of post market environmental monitoring (PMEM)
is to serve as an early warning system to facilitate early and appropriate mitigation
measures (EC 2002).

To reach this objective, specific monitoring strategies are needed. Incompleteness
of knowledge and uncertainties about environmental impacts of GMOs as well as
the wide range of potential ecological effects pose big challenges for the development
of PMEM. At present no routine environmental impact observation procedure for
GMOs exists. Current PMEM plans and reports (e.g. MON810, Amflora) reveal fun-
damental shortcomings concerning objectives, design and methodology (BfN, EEA,
BAFU 2011).

With the present focal section of BioRisk we want to contribute to the improve-
ment of PMEM. Bearing in mind that science-based methodology is a premise for
appropriate and reliable monitoring data and sound monitoring results, the contribu-
tions here aim at filling gaps for suitable and harmonized monitoring protocols for
PMEM. The papers present the work of experts, who developed standardized methods
for different aspects of the monitoring of genetically modified organisms, in coopera-
tion with the Association of German Engineers (VDI) and the Federal Agency for Na-
ture Conservation (BfN). The final products are technical standards (VDI guidelines)

Copyright W. Ziighart, J. Settele. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 3.0
(CC-BY), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

2 Wiebke Ziighart & Josef Settele / BioRisk 8: 1-2 (2013)

for PMEM. They are published in German and English, and therefore accessible to all
European stakeholders (www.beuth.de).

References

EEA — European Environment Agency (2013) Late lessons from early warnings: science, pre-
caution, innovation. EEA Report No 1/2013.

EC — European Commission (2001) Directive 2001/18/EC of the European Parliament and of
the Council of 12 March 2001 on the deliberate release into the environment of genetically
modified organisms and repealing Council Directive 90/220/EEC. Official Journal of the
European Communities, L 106/1.

EC — European Commission (2002) Council Decision of 3 October 2002 establishing guid-
ance notes supplementing Annex VII to Directive 2001/18/EC or the European Parlia-
ment and of the Council on the deliberate release into the environment of genetically
modified organisms and repealing Council Directive 90/220/EEC. Official Journal of the
European Communities, L 280/27.

BfN, FOEN, EEA (2011) Monitoring of genetically modified organisms. A policy paper repre-
senting the view of the National Environment Agencies in Austria and Switzerland and the

Federal Agency for Nature Conservation in Germany. Report 0305, Vienna.