Environmental Risk Assessments for Gene Drive Technologies: what do we need to worry about?

Gene-drive based technologies could offer an innovative approach to addressing the challenge posed by alien invasive species to fragile native species and ecosystems. Recent scientific progress in developing potential gene drive organisms has spurred increasing interest in the issue of governance and regulation for these technologies. IUCN’s own four-year effort to develop a policy position on synthetic biology, including gene drives, reflects this. Questions regarding whether gene drive organisms can be developed, evaluated and used safely, and what the impacts of an eventual release might be, are now taking center stage. This session will discuss how environmental risk assessments for gene drives are being developed and what aspects of the technology, if any, present new challenges to existing biosafety frameworks. It will address how to define risks, how to identify affected stakeholders, and how to predict and manage unforeseen or adverse envir