Annex 2

GLOSSARY OF TERMS USED IN THESE GUIDELINES


1. Capacity-building: It is the strengthening and/or development of human resources and institutional capacities.

2. Contained use: Any operation involving organisms which are controlled by physical barriers or a combination of physical and/or chemical and/or biological barriers which limit their contact with, or their impacts on, the potentially receiving environment, which includes humans.

3. Controlled release: Deliberate release of organisms where risk management measures are applied.

4. Containment: Prevention of the spread of organisms outside the facilities which may be achieved by physical containment (the use of good work practices, equipment and installation design) and/or biological containment (the use of organisms which have reduced ability to survive or reproduce in the environment).

5. Containment level: The degree of physical containment which depends on the design of the facility, the equipment installed and the procedures used.

6. Deliberate release: Any use of organisms that is not a contained use.

7. Donor: The organism from which genetic material is derived for insertion into or combination with another organism.

8. Centre of origin of diversity: The place or region where the source of diversity is located.

9. Familiarity: Knowledge and experience with an organism, the intended application and the potential receiving environment (see paragraph 20).

10. Genetic modification: Modern biotechnology used to alter genetic material of living cells or organisms in order to make them capable of producing new substances or performing new functions.

11. Hazard: The potential of an organism to cause harm to human health and/or the environment.

12. Host: An organism in which the genetic material is altered by modification of a
part of its own genetic material and/or insertion of foreign genetic material.

13. Organism: Any entity able to replicate its own genetic material including viruses.

14. Organisms with novel traits: Organisms produced by genetic modification and whose resultant genetic make-up is unlikely to occur in nature. These do not include organisms obtained by conventional techniques and traditional breeding methods.

15. Oversight: A system for addressing questions of potential risk through guidelines, regulations or other structures.

16. Parents: Organisms from which an organism with novel trait(s) is derived.

17. Pathogen: An organism that can cause disease.

18. Potential receiving environment: An ecosystem or habitat, including humans and animals, which is likely to come in contact with a released organism.

19. Risk: The combination of the magnitude of the consequences of a hazard, if it occurs, and the likelihood that the consequences will occur.

20. Risk assessment: The measures to estimate what harm might be caused, how likely it would be to occur and the scale of the estimated damage.

21. Risk management: The measures to ensure that the production and handling of an organism are safe.

22. Users: Any persons, institutions or organizations (including companies) responsible for the development, production, testing, marketing and distribution of organisms with novel traits. Any member of the general public who purchases and/or uses an organism is not a user in the meaning of these Guidelines, unless specific conditions are attached to its use.

23. Vector: An organism or object used to transfer genetic material from a donor organism to a recipient organism.