Should a biosafety protocol be negotiated as part of the Biodiversity Convention?

Developments in genetic engineering technology are outpacing the policy debate. The Earth Summit failed in 1992 to create suitable international controls on the safe handling, transfer and use of genetically manipulated organisms (GMOs). This paper presents the case that now, with the negotiations in the Convention on Biological Diversity considering the need for and modalities of a biosafety protocol, it is time to set up a legally binding instrument. Most countries in the world have regulations, and there are real fears that countries in the developing world may be used as testing grounds for risky experiments. There is also a strong case for harmonizing the regulation of biotech at an international level, if there is ever to be effective verification and policing of the transfer and exchange of GMOs. Adding to the arguments for the need for a protocol are the scientific uncertainties surrounding the safety of environmental release of GMOs. However, given the apparent magnitude of these scientific uncertainties, it is essential that a global protocol is not cast in a light which reinforces the seductive but misleading classical mode of risk assessment and management, and its underlying epistemology.