A multi-stakeholder Framework for Ecological Risk Management: Summary of a SETAC technical workshop

This summary outlines the Framework for Ecological Risk Management workshop sponsored by SETAC and administered by the SETAC Foundation for Environmental Education on 23-25 June 1997. This consensus framework describes a participative, decision-making, multi-stakeholder process, which closely complements the USEPA's (1992) model for ecological risk assessment by offering guidance on the substantive nature of interactions between risk assessors and risk managers, both preceding and following an ecological risk assessment. Workshop participants emphasized that ecological risk management (ERM) concerns should represent the diversity of stakeholder inputs, be considered early in the design of an ecological risk assessment (ERA), and optimally support sound decisionmaking. It was further recognized that sound and acceptable ERM decisions are supported by a process that effectively integrates social, political, economic, and technical interests and concerns.