BEHIND COLONIZATION

The planet must not be inhabited by any pre-contact civilization, this is one of the greatest priorities, as colonization will lead to informal contact which would result in perhaps war or difficult political situations, never in the Federation’s colonization have colonies been founded on primitive pre-contact civilization bearing world.

There must not be any unacceptable new disease vectors present on the intended colony world, though it is very unlikely that any indigenous organisms pose a targeted health threat to civilization life, some life forms may cause serious side effects on federation species, even if their function is non pathological. Unacceptable novel diseases constitute those which pose great contagious ability or long incubation periods which in more than 0.5% cases cause fatality or unacceptable change in life span, or physical makeup, which may not be preventable or treatable, however this is statement does not all have to be true, any disease which has any of those features counts as excessive risk. Very few colony worlds have introduced new disease into the Federation population, all new disease are minor, and treatable and preventable.

Colonization cannot occur if the new influx of controlled species poses a risk of severe endangerment (or irreversible population decline) to one or more indigenous organisms. Though if relatively simple measures can be taken to prevent this, (say not disturbing the rarer trees, and indeed cultivating them) then colonization can continue under observation of the fragile species.

Colonization can not occur if as a result of settlement the climate or chemical composition in the planet’s global (local also) biosphere changes as much as to pose a risk factor to indigenous species (for example the depression or elevation of carbon dioxide levels beyond indigenous biological tolerances, or lead to climate change).