Applying an operating model for the environmental risk assessment in Italian Sites of Community Importance (SCI) of the European Commission Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC)

The fast development of agro-biotechnologies asks for a harmonized approach in risk analysis of GMO's releases, where "risk analysis" entails the assessment, management and communication of risk. Risk assessment consists in the evaluation of the likelihood that a hazard occurs, associated with the presence of the receptor(s) in the receiving environment, and the determination of their potential degree of exposure to the hazard. The whole process has to be both science based and applied case by case, and it involves a very complicated procedure that needs to be transformed in an operational and standardized tool. Beginning in 2003, an expert group on behalf of the Italian Ministry of the Env…