What kinds of approvals for new organisms are there? What is containment? What is release?
There are two basic types of new organism approvals:
Approvals to produce or hold new organisms in approved containment facilities.
“Containment” means to hold a new organism in a secure location or facility. Containment facilities are designed and operated to prevent the release of the organism—or its heritable material— into the wider environment. A containment facility can be indoors (eg, laboratories, glasshouses, or laboratory animal facilities) or outdoors (eg, zoo enclosures or field test sites). Containment facilities are approved by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry Biosecurity New Zealand (MAFBNZ) to specific Containment Standards. All containment facilities are audited by MAFBNZ on a regular basis.
Read more information about approved containment facilities or the MAF/ERMA containment standards.
Approvals to release new organisms into the New Zealand environment
An approval for release means that the new organism does not need to be kept in an approved containment facility. Release approvals would be needed if you wanted to do the activities such as growing a new plant in your home garden or commercially, using a new animal for farming or activities such as trekking or using a vaccine which carries a live new organism to vaccinate the general public or to use in a clinical trial.