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3. CONTEXT, CONCEPT AND VISION

Context

The pressures

3.1 It is clear that human activities, and other natural processes, have the potential for significant impacts on the natural resources of our marine and coastal environments. These impacts can be driven by:

• climate change
• harnessing renewable energy
• protection of biodiversity
• industrial/agricultural production
• commercial fisheries/aquaculture
• exploration for, and exploitation of, mineral and hydrocarbon resources
• marine archaeology
• coastal/marine development
• marine biotechnology development
• waste disposal and marine litter
• tourism and recreation

3.2 Some of those drivers may have positive impacts, whether in terms of helping deliver thriving marine and coastal environments or communities. It will be important to find ways to maximise these positive impacts through sustainable development. Other drivers put pressure on the marine and coastal environments through:

• ecosystem change
• loss of biodiversity
• degradation/destruction of habitats
• discharge of pollutants to water
• deposits in the sea
• eutrophication through excess nutrients
• coastal erosion/inundation
• introduction of non-native species

3.3 These pressures are explored in more depth in "Charting Progress - An Integrated Assessment of the State of UK Seas" (Defra, ref PB9911 http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/water/marine/uk/stateofsea/).

The impacts

© SNH

3.4 In Scotland's coastal and marine areas, water borne pollution remains a potential risk, and there is evidence of declining stocks of some fish species, seabed disturbance, habitat loss and disturbance to sea life. For several of these, action is already in hand. For example, damaging inputs from land and sea are now largely under control through regulation and investment in preventative and remedial measures. Plans are in place for handling emergency pollution incidents from shipping and other offshore activities. Action is in hand to put the fisheries in Scotland's waters on a more sustainable footing and to tackle the environmental impacts of fishing through the implementation of the Sustainable Framework for Scotland's Sea Fisheries. Nevertheless, such impacts are important in their own right and because any disturbance to marine ecosystems can also have longer term consequences for those economic and social activities that rely on the continued availability of marine and coastal natural resources. Sustainable use of resources and profitability are inextricably linked. Handling the balance between using natural resources today in a way that allows them to renew for future use requires a strategic approach to the sustainable management of the marine and coastal environments.

Sea View

There are seven top commercial fish species of major interest to Scotland. In recent decades, few of them have been maintained consistently within safe biological limits. But prospects are now better and the most recent assessments show that the current state of many of our most important commercial fisheries is positive

• Herring and haddock are both healthy fish stocks, which are being safely harvested by current standards;
• Nephrops (prawns), also appear - for now - to be healthy and safely harvested, but the biological situation is not completely understood and there are some scientific uncertainties in establishing what level of fishing activity is sustainable in the longer term;
• Scallop stocks are at safe levels and, at current levels of effort, are being fished sustainably, though this situation needs to be kept under review;
• Monkfish appear to be more abundant than in the recent past, but the many biological uncertainties suggest that the stocks may be at risk of over-exploitation;
• Mackerel is in better health than it has been but is still at risk of over-exploitation. Actions are now being taken to reduce fishing effort;
• Cod is seriously depleted and is subject to a long-term recovery plan.

Machair flowers, Isle of Lewis
© Lorne Gill / SNH

3.5 In the long-term, climate change will have an increasing impact on coastal and marine environments. Changes in sea temperatures, salinity, ocean current, sea-level rise and increased storm surges could have huge consequences for both sea and surface habitats. It is important that we continue to improve our understanding of how climate change might impact on the coastal and marine environments so that we can plan and adapt accordingly.

Sea View

Rothesay on the Isle of Bute has a history of flooding from the sea. The financial cost of that reached a peak in 1991, when a tidal surge caused substantial damage, in the region of £3 to £4 million, to commercial and residential properties in the town centre. Argyll and Bute Council decided to implement a Flood Prevention Scheme for Rothesay under the Flood Prevention (Scotland) Act 1961. The scheme was confirmed by Ministers in November 2002, and was officially opened in January 2005. A key feature was the construction of flood protection walls along part of the esplanade, combined with associated drainage works and alterations to walls along the Lade burn. It will reduce the annual flood risk in Rothesay to below 1% over the life of the scheme taking account of climate change. This will help to protect 50 to 60 properties in the area that have been affected by major flooding incidents in the past.

The Executive fully supported the Council's efforts to fund this scheme by providing resources and grant aid at 50% of the eligible costs. Since the Rothesay scheme was confirmed, Ministers have announced a substantial increase in the resources available to local authorities for flood prevention and coast protection measures to £89 million over the next three years, coupled with an increase in grant rate to 80%.

The remedy

3.6 Our current approach to coastal and marine management is based largely on sector based strategies and by regulation based processes. These help us work towards some specific outputs and outcomes (see tables 1 and 2) but the current approach also has some drawbacks:

• A sectoral approach can overlook cumulative effects of individual sectors on wider coastal and marine ecosystems and on other users of the coasts and seas. It can also overlook the specific impacts of one sector on another and the potential tension/conflict between disparate sectoral objectives. This oversight can have ecosystem/environmental and social-economic dis-benefits.
• Regulation based processes can create their own tensions between social-economic and environmental/ecological objectives (for example, SACs/ SPAs are established solely for conservation purposes, and although management plans can take account of socio-economic effects tensions can exist; wastewater treatment is largely driven by mandatory performance standards). Those tensions need better management.
• Some of our current outcomes are, rightly, focussed on reducing inputs to the environment rather than on measures to improve coastal and ecosystem health and the quality of the natural environment. This is partly due to a lack of consolidated baseline data from which to measure progress on ecological/environmental targets (although "Charting Progress" has now begun to address that).
• Broad level changes, like those induced by climate change, will impact on all sectors but individual responses might not be as effective as one co-ordinated across all sectors.

© Lorne Gill/ SNH
© Sue Scott / MNCR/ SNH

Sea View

The Executive aims to develop a suite of sectoral outcomes for the sea fisheries industry together with the Advisory Group that will be established to take forward the Sustainable Framework for Sea Fisheries. These are likely to fall into the following categories:

Sustainable - nurturing the marine resources on which it depends by playing its part to safeguard the marine ecosystem so those resources can benefit future generations as part of a thriving and biologically diverse marine environment leading to:

• More stocks are within safe biological limits;
• There is progress towards sustainability of individual stocks;
• Improved understanding and acceptance of scientific information in the industry and more science/industry collaborative projects; and
• Positive trends in wider marine environment indicators.

Profitable - efficient, market focussed, entrepreneurial - maximising the return from every fish by delivering a safe, quality and globally competitive product, leading to

• Improved economic returns for fishermen;
• Improvement in global competitiveness with a higher quality, more value added product commanding higher prices in target markets;
• More export success and more success in developing premium UK markets for Scotland's seafood industry; and
• Continued contribution from the sea fishing industry to the economies of remote and fragile communities in Scotland.

Well-managed - socially responsible, playing by the rules, influenced and influencing and regulated effectively with the full involvement of the industry, leading to

• Improved satisfaction with fisheries science and the governance and regulatory framework in Scotland and the EU; and
• Improved compliance with quota and other fisheries management controls.

An Advisory group is being convened to firm up the actions that will be needed to achieve these outcomes, including a timetable and devise performance indicators to measure success.

© SNH

3.7 A marine and coastal Strategy, clearly founded on the principles of sustainable development and taking further forward the concept of integrated coastal zone management ( ICZM) will aim to address those weaknesses without supplanting existing sectoral strategies and objectives. Through the Scottish Sustainable Marine Environment Initiative ( SSMEI) we are already working on pilot projects in Shetland, Clyde and the St Abbs area to test new approaches to marine and coastal management (see paragraph 5.2). In addition, SNH have already been asked to begin an assessment of the role and responsibilities of a coastal and marine national park authority, and to identify potential candidate sites for Scotland's first coastal and marine national park. This will encourage access to, and use of the park area, in line with sustainable development principles and contributing to local community development.

Common Seals (Phoca vitulina) in water
© Lorne Gill/ SNH

Sea View

Since 1995, Historic Scotland has grant-aided diver training by the Nautical Archaeology Society Training (Scotland) ( NAS). The training, based in the Sound of Mull, is undertaken in conjunction with the 'Diving with a Purpose' initiative, which encourages good stewardship and recording of Scotland's underwater heritage. In addition to helping improve standards of recording in maritime archaeology, the NAS Diver Training raises the public profile for maritime archaeology and promotes best practice, with training, support and advice for licensees working in Scotland on historic wreck sites.

Concept

3.8 Building on the work of the Scottish Coastal Forum, the Scottish Biodiversity Forum and the SSMEI, and taking into account responses to the 2004 consultation, we will seek to apply the 5 inter-related guiding principles of sustainable development in the following way:

3.9 This will address the issues outlined at paragraph 3.6 by:

• Providing a more sophisticated approach to understanding the impact of inter-related activity in the marine and coastal environments (allowing us to understand better the cumulative impacts on natural resources on which more than one sector depends, and the cross-sectoral impacts of one activity area on others)
• Providing a basis for action through a governing framework to manage those inter relationships, bringing greater coherence and co-ordination to the range of policies and activities relevant to our coasts and seas
• Providing a more holistic, ecosystems-based approach to sustainable marine and coastal resource management and use
• Forming a bond between sector specific strategies to ensure that cumulative and cross-sectoral impacts are better understood and managed and that objectives on ecosystem/environmental health are met
• Moving the debate away from polarisation between socio-economic and environmental considerations by providing a mechanism for resolving conflicts between the two.

3.10 The relationship between sustainable development, the marine and coastal strategy, sectoral strategies, ICZM, biodiversity and water quality measures is shown graphically below:

Vision

3.11 The principles of sustainable development already apply to all activity in the marine and coastal areas. The value of a specific marine and coastal strategy therefore lies primarily in its wider management and conflict resolution function, and in its assessment of cumulative and cross-sectoral effects. Within that, there will be 3 distinct deliverables:

• To set and measure, against an identified scientific baseline, clear objectives for improving coastal and marine ecology health and the quality of the natural environment and the socio-economic health of coastal communities. Specific sector based objectives would contribute to that
• To provide a mechanism for determining the scale of any conflict between specific sector based objectives and the extent to which such objectives are hindered or exacerbated by climate change
• To provide a suite of measures for dealing with conflict resolution and at the appropriate scale.

3.12 These deliverables would aim to secure the long-term mutual sustainability of:

• The environment - from biologically diverse species and habitats to sites of historic and cultural value
• Communities - from coastal villages to conurbations which rely on and/or value the natural resources of our coastal and marine environments for whatever reason
• Industries - from fisheries, aquaculture and energy to transport, tourism and recreation

3.13 The Scottish Executive's ultimate vision, amended slightly from the proposal in the 2004 consultation in order to reflect the framework of guiding principles of sustainable development into which the strategy is now set, is to secure:

Clean, healthy, safe, productive and biologically diverse marine and coastal environments, managed to meet the long-term interests of nature and people

Sea View

Building Buchan New Beginnings is a 3 year action plan to address the economic challenges facing North Aberdeenshire. Under the plan, £1.3m is being invested to develop the 18 ^th century Banff Harbour as a marina offering around 100 berths. Economic forecasts suggest the marina will generate around £500,000 of spend locally when full, supporting the local community. A further investment of around £56m over 8 years will support the regeneration of Kinnaird Head in Fraserburgh, resulting in new housing and open space areas. Core partners in the action plan are Scottish Enterprise Grampian, Aberdeenshire Council and Communities Scotland [ www.buildingbuchan.co.uk]

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