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

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