The Fifth Intergovernmental Meeting on the Caribbean Environment Programme and Second Meeting of the Contracting Parties to the Cartagena Convention, Kingston, 17-18 January 1990, requested the Secretariat by Decision 16 to study in depth the mechanism of application of the Principle of Precautionary Action and to prepare a document for consideration by the next Intergovernmental and Contracting Parties Meeting. This document responds to this request by providing a definition of the precautionary principle and an explanation of its working, together with an outline of approaches taken in defining the principle by other institutions