Norway—The Norwegian Gene Technology Act: Presenting Case Studies to Illustate the Act’s Advances in Protecting Biodiversity

Here we present the scope and administrative practice of the Norwegian Gene Technology Act. The main focus is on the objective of the environmental risk assessment which acknowledges both direct and indirect effects as well as immediate, delayed and cumulative effects on the environment. We describe the prohibition of two vaccines and seven applications of GM rapeseed. These applications are approved in Europe, but forbidden in Norway after taking environmental and biodiversity risks into consideration. The only approved GMOs in Norway are the import of five carnations, where the risk to the environment was not relevant. With the emergence of gene-edited organisms Norway does, as many other countries, discuss how to regulate, monitor and trace these organisms which represent a challenge to present regulative framework.