INTRODUCTION

The uncertainty encompassing potential threats to the environment has often been used as a reason to avoid taking action to guard the environment. However, it is not always attainable to have clear evidence of a threat to the environment before the damage happens. Precaution as the “Precautionary Principle” or “Precautionary Approach” is a response to the current uncertainty.

The preventive principle has been widely incorporated, in varied forms, in international environmental agreements and declarations and additionally developed in a variety of national laws. Part common to the various formulations of the preventive principle is that the recognition that lack of certainty concerning the threat of environmental hurt mustn’t be used as an excuse for not taking any precaution for the threat.

Precautionary principle plays a significant role to decide whether or not the developmental process is property or not. ‘Precautionary principle’ underlies sustainable development that needs that the developmental activity ought to be stopped and prevented if it causes serious and irreversible environmental hurt.

The preventative principle has not been present within the field of international environmental law for very long, nevertheless, it has achieved a distinguished position as a significant topic of debate over the past years. In essence, it advocates the utilization of precaution in situations wherever some scientific uncertainty exists. The purpose of the preventative principle is to anticipate and avoid environmental harm before it happens. This preventive measure, which is novel in many ways, would ultimately serve to lower mitigation costs of resultant environmental harm. The implementation of the precautionary principle is problematic in an economic sense as a result of it places a lot of responsibility on those who create potential risks than in the past. Its most vital and debatable feature is that it shifts the burden of scientific proof from those who would really like to prohibit or curtail a potentially dangerous activity to people who conduct the activity.

This is an ethical and political principle that states that if an action or policy would possibly cause severe or irreversible damage to the general public, in the absence of a scientific consensus that damage wouldn’t ensue, then the action should be stopped. The principle implies that there’s a social responsibility to shield the general public from exposure to damage when scientific investigation has found a plausible risk. These protections will be relaxed only if more scientific findings emerge that offer soundproof that no damage can result.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE

A broad range of international participants is involved with developments in this field. States, of course, because the dominant subjects of the international system are deeply involved, as are an increasing range of international organizations, whether or not at the worldwide, regional, or bilateral level. The UN General Assembly has adopted a variety of resolutions regarding the environment, and also the UN Environment Programme was established once the Stockholm Conference of 1972. This has proven a very important organization in the evolution of conventions and instruments within the field of environmental protection.

The precautionary principle dates back to the 1970s, the term precautionary principle had its origin from the German word ‘Vorsorgeprinzip’. The first drafted bill emerged in 1970 in Germany with the aim of securing clean air for humans. It was passed in 1974 and covered the sources which lead to air pollution, noise pollution, etc. The principle was formally acknowledged in the 1985 Vienna Convention for the protection of the ozone layer. In the year 1987 during the Montreal Protocol on substances that lead to the depletion of the ozone layer, the parties agreed to take precautionary measures in order to control the emission of the substances which lead to ozone depletion. Agenda 21 also refers to the precautionary principle in relation to marine environmental protection; it states that a precautionary and anticipatory approach would be necessary in order to prevent the degradation of the marine environment.

Article 3 of the United Nations Framework Convention on global climate change was only one in a long list of international agreements that contained the precautional principle, creating it one among the foremost widespread legal ideas in international environmental law nowadays. Whereas traditional restrictive practices are reactive, precautionary measures are preventive and pre-emptive. The precautionary principle provides that if there is a risk of severe damage to humans or the environment, the absence of incontrovertible, conclusive, or definite scientific proof is not a reason for inaction. It’s a better safe than sorry approach, in distinction with the standard reactive wait and sees the approach to environmental protection.

THE ROLE OF THE PREVENTATIVE PRINCIPLE IN THE CONSERVATION AND SUSTAINABLE USE OF BIODIVERSITY

In order to attain sustainable development, policies should be supported by the precautionary principle. Environmental measures ought to anticipate, stop, and attack the causes of environmental degradation. where there are threats of great or irreversible harm, lack of full scientific certainty mustn’t be used as a reason for suspending measures to prevent environmental degradation.

Application of the Preventative Principle helps sustain the biodiversity assets and scheme services that underpin all societies and economies, and will thereby contribute to the Wipeout of poverty; maintenance of natural and social surroundings supportive of human dignity, bodily health, and religious well-being; and also, the rights of native peoples to their spirituality, knowledge, lands, resources, and livelihoods.

The Preventative Principle desires more than careful anticipation, avoidance, and mitigation of potential harm from human activities that are already underway or planned for the long run. It needs a modern stance of taking care for the long run within the sense of actively preparing, coming up with, and providing for it. It encourages humans to commit themselves to the long run of life on Earth by ensuring that evolutionary processes and equipment systems continue to be replenished and that the generations to come back enjoy lives of dignity, chance, and sweetness.

The precautional Principle is, therefore, a proactive principle that calls on decision-makers to make a decision on the technological innovation, political decision-making, legislative enactments within the service of recent and creative ways of living that riskless hurt to the health of humans and nature and sustain the viability of the region.

To protect biological diversity from the potential risks posed by living modified organisms resulting from modern biotechnology, the Cartagena Protocol was adopted in 2000 as the first protocol under Article 19 of the Convention on Biological Diversity. It is based on the precautionary principle and aims to ensure the safe handling, transport, and use of living modified organisms. Common living modified organisms include agricultural crops that have been genetically modified for greater productivity or for resistance to pests or diseases.

IMPLEMENTING THE PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE

a) Humility and restraint, acknowledging human undependability within the hunt for certainty, the limits of science, and therefore the tendency to over-reach within the quest for human security and well-being.

b) Assuming the burden of responsibility for our actions, and so the need to justify our activities in the light of moral principles, public responsibility, and available information, and not leave this task to others.

c) Promoting democratic processes of sensible ethical deliberation and deciding throughout that citizens ponder a plurality of often competitive goods, and provide reasoned arguments on behalf of most popular courses of action that are justified and are fair and equitable for present and future generations to come.

d) Imagining new ways in which of living that is plenty liberating for humans and nature alike and brazenly assessing all alternatives.

e) Preserving, at whatever costs are necessary, sufficient genetic diversity and resilient natural systems can assure the indefinite biological process flourishing of life on the earth.

f) Making the mandatory transformations in personal, economic, and social life which will understand a more simple and sustainable future for all.

DIFFERENT FORMULATIONS OF THE PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE

1. Rio Declaration, 1992 Principle 15: With the aim to safeguard the atmosphere, the preventative principle is wide applied by all the states in line with their capabilities. Whenever there happens any threat about serious or irreversible harm it shall not be used as a reason for suspending cost-effective measures to stop environmental degradation.

2. Convention on Biological Diversity 1992: It states that where there’s a threat of serious reduction or loss of biological diversity, lack of full scientific certainty should not be used as a reason for suspending measures to avoid or minimize such a threat.

3. Framework Convention on international global climate change 1992: The Parties ought to take precautionary measures to anticipate, stop, or minimize the causes of worldwide global climate change and mitigate its adverse effects. where there are threats of significant or irreversible harm, lack of full scientific certainty shouldn’t be used as a reason for suspending such measures, taking into consideration that policies and measures to deal with international global climate change need to be cost-effective so as to ensure global advantages at the lowest possible cost.

4. The UK biodiversity Action plan, 1994: In line with the preventative principle, where interactions are difficult and where the offered evidence suggests that there’s a major probability of injury to our biodiversity heritage occurring, conservation measures are appropriate, even in the absence of conclusive scientific proof that the damage will occur.

PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE AS A RULE OF CUSTOMARY LAW

The standing of the precautionary principle as a rule of customary law is critical as a result of a rule of customary law creates obligations for all states, except people who have persistently objected to the practice and its legal consequences. The statute of the International Court of Justice defines customary law of nations as “evidence of general practice accepted as law. The Republic of Nicaragua case and the North Sea continental shelf case complement this text of the Statute and clarify two needs of the customary law of nations. according to the International Court of Justice, customary law of nations arises once nations follow the practice in an extensive and nearly uniform manner and this practice is followed with the conviction that it’s obligatory to do this under the law of nations (opinion Juris). Consequently, the opposition of some states doesn’t interfere with the development of a customary rule. However, the simplest indicators of state practice remain the instruments of the law of nations and state domestic law. Currently, the precautionary principle is employed in more than ninety international declarations and agreements.

CONCLUSION

Though this principle includes a lot of benefits and seeks to shield the interest of the general public, it also generates internal inconsistency, and thus applying the principle in absolute terms really contradicts the principle in itself.

The precautionary principle is an essential method that is used for the risk assessment and the impact it can cause to the environment. Basically, the objective of the principle is to recognize the decisions which may have an impact on the environment and access and recognize the conditions of uncertainty in accordance with the possible environmental consequences of the decisions taken. It focuses on taking preventive actions before time in order to avoid the effects which can damage the environment.

It supports taking preventive measures and protecting actions even though there’s not a whole scientific proof of risk, still, the actions shouldn’t be avoided just because of the fact that fully-fledged scientific information is lacking. This principle is one among the foremost necessary components of environmental law and is extremely praised as it is believed to be favourable within the conservation of the prevailing natural environment and variety, and would result in the conservation and revival of the environmental conditions.