Connecting ecosystem services research and human rights to revamp the application of the precautionary principle
By Holly J. Niner, Elisa Morgera, Andrea Longo, Kerry L. Howell & Siân E. Rees
“With ecosystem services (ES) vital for human wellbeing1, the protection of nature is a human rights matter. We outline how recent advances in international human rights law should inform a revamp of how precaution is applied within environmental decision-making. Critically, precautionary decision-making must evolve to make use of best-available evidence, including novel ES research approaches, to assess ‘foreseeable’ harms to all aspects of human wellbeing that are protected as human rights…”