ABSTRACT
The precautionary principle is concerned with reducing the risk of serious or irreversible harm to the environment. It recognizes that making informed decisions in natural resource management (NRM) and biodiversity conservation is often compromised by a lack of knowledge about the environmental and human implications of such decisions. If precautionary approaches are to succeed and be sustainable in practice, they have to be economically and financially viable for those concerned. Furthermore, both the goals and success of precautionary principle approaches have to be judged at least partly in terms of economic impacts. Economic criteria are therefore important factors in weighing up natural resource decisions and in justifying the application of the precautionary principle.
