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This paper examines the application of the precautionary principle in environmental assessment, specifically using the Salmon Aquaculture Review and the Burns Bog Ecosystem Review in British Columbia as case studies. Lessons are drawn and advice is offered. A conceptual model is presented, framed according to the level of uncertainty regarding impacts and the likelihood of those impacts, as well as the irreversibility of impacts on the environmental system. A distinction is made between management strategies that should either avoid the activities in question or allow for adaptive management and, if implemented effectively, prevent or mitigate adverse effects. Applying the precautionary principle in environmental assessment requires, above all, clear communication and the development of a common understanding of the basis for decisions. The model presented in this paper is suggested as a tool from which a more specific methodological framework can be developed on a case by case basis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forest Renewal British Columbia (FRBC) was created in 1994 to deliver programmes of sustainable development within the leading economic sector of the province, serving as a key element of the radical new natural resource management agenda being promoted by an interventionist provincial administration. Its funding consisted solely of the hypothecated revenues of a 'super' stumpage on timber harvesting. This paper considers the role FRBC played in helping to gain agreement to changes in provincial land use planning and forest strategy, and evaluates its effectiveness as an eco-tax recycling mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Designing or transforming urban areas into 'sustainable cities' is becoming an increasingly common vision. It is, however, an unrealizable vision without agreement on how to determine whether a sustainable city vision has been fulfilled. In this paper we define a provisional set of urban environmental sustainability metrics, chosen to cover the spectrum of issues related to urban areas, and to be drawn from data that are customarily available. We devise a display technique to communicate efficiently the results of a metrics evaluation to a variety of stakeholders. The approach is illustrated by applying the metrics set to Vancouver, Canada, an urban area that has expended considerable effort toward achieving its own environmental vision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]