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Annex 8 - Marine Nature Conservation Summary Report
Advisory Group on the Marine and Coastal Strategy
Marine Nature Conservation
Introduction
AGMACS established a workstream to consider, and report back. "recommendations on the potential need for new legislation on marine nature conservation", as this was an issue left unresolved in Seas: The Opportunity. Full details of the issues considered by the workstream are covered in a background paper on Marine Nature Conservation in Scotland (annexe to paper AGMACS (06)27).
We would emphasise that nature conservation should not be viewed as a stand-alone objective, but should be embedded in wider objectives for the marine environment around Scotland.
Recommendation 1: A Scottish set of Marine Ecosystem Objectives ( MEOs) should be drawn together, with full stakeholder engagement, during 2007. These should have the ecosystem approach at their heart, and should be fully integrated with the broad policy approach of 'living within environmental limits'. They should be nested within a wider set of MEOs for UK waters and for the Regional Seas around Scotland.
We note that Scottish Ministers have an existing commitment to the EU Gothenburg target to halt biodiversity loss by 2010, and have accepted the target in the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy to stop biodiversity loss and begin to reverse previous losses by 2030, and we would expect them to wish to reflect this in the Scottish MEOs.
We believe that, to be effective, marine nature conservation must be based around three pillars, and make further recommendations based on each of these pillars in turn.
The Species Conservation Pillar
We are satisfied that the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981, as amended by the Nature Conservation (Scotland) Act 2004, remain relevant and effective for the marine environment. However, we have two recommendations to improve its operation:-
Recommendation 2: Measures should be introduced to ensure that this Act, as amended, is enforced more effectively at sea: this may require legislative changes to give officers of the Scottish Fisheries Protection Agency and/orMarine Management Organisation the power to act as constables while carrying out their duties at sea where such powers are not currently available, additional resourcing for existing enforcement measures, or both.
Recommendation 3:SNH and the JNCC should be asked to carry out an immediate assessment, based upon objective criteria, of whether additional species on the List of Species and Habitats considered to be of principal importance for the purpose of Biodiversity Conservation in Scotland, would benefit from being included in the schedules of the above Act, as amended.
We hope that Scottish Ministers will pursue with UK Ministers a system to ensure that this legal protection is applied consistently from 0 to 12 nautical miles (nm) and from 12 to 200nm, and that the biodiversity duty will likewise be applied consistently to 200nm.
The Policy Pillar
By ensuring a better integrated decision-making mechanism for managing Scottish seas, the statutory system of Marine Spatial Planning recommended by AGMACS will have a fundamental role to play in meeting broad biodiversity objectives. In doing so, it is important that MSP is fully based on the ecosystem approach 19, has a system in place for adaptive management, informed by monitoring, and that the body (or bodies) charged with taking forward MSP has a clear duty to contribute to the national set of MEOs in its work. Additionally:-
Recommendation 4: Scottish Ministers should consider urgently the need for certain activities which at present are unregulated in the marine environment to be brought within a licensing regime. The recent review of unlicensed activities by the University of Hull, commissioned by Defra, will provide a useful starting point for this consideration.
The Site Protection Pillar
Even with these measures in place, we have concluded that a targeted mechanism is also required for the protection of sites of particular importance for the species and habitats which they hold. This is recognized by the establishment of marine sites contributing to the European 'Natura' network around Scotland; in the UK commitment to the OSPAR Convention, requiring the establishment of "an ecologically coherent network of well-managed protected areas by 2010"; and in the support of Scottish Ministers to the outcomes of the World Summit on Sustainable Development ( WSSD), requiring, amongst other things, "the establishment of marine protected areas, consistent with international law and based on scientific information, including representative networks, by 2012".
We have considered the existing mechanisms available for site protection in the marine environment, and concluded that only the Conservation (Natural Habitats &c.) Regulations 1994 remain a valid mechanism for the establishment of marine protected areas around Scotland. However, we are unable to advise Ministers at this time that these Regulations alone can deliver the OSPAR and WSSD commitments, particularly with respect to "ecologically coherent" and "representative" networks. Accordingly:-
Recommendation 5: To meet OSPAR and WSSD commitments, Ministers should introduce a new flexible regulatory mechanism for area-based biodiversity conservation in Scottish waters.
Recommendation 6: Given that such a new flexible regulatory mechanism will be required, Ministers should consult on whether this mechanism should also include provision for the establishment of protected areas based on purely Scottish priorities 20, consistent with the agreed MEOs.
Recommendation 7: This regulatory mechanism should be designed to support the agreed Scottish MEOs and should be based on objective scientific criteria. Any protection measures included within this mechanism should be proportionate, fully transparent and integrated within the MSP (and ICZM) mechanisms. However, the mechanism should give Ministers fallback powers where required, equivalent to those in the Conservation (Natural Habitats &c.) Regulations, to prevent damage to the special features for which any such protected area was established.
The AGMACS Marine Nature Conservation workstream proposed that this new mechanism should be based on a system of Nationally Important Marine Areas ( NIMAs), and made a number of suggestions in AGMACS paper (06)41 on how this system might work. We have not put forward this proposal as a specific recommendation from AGMACS, because we believe there is still a need for wider public debate on how such a system might operate. However we hope the NIMA model will be given careful consideration in taking forward recommendations 5 - 7 above.
Recommendation 8: Subject to their conclusions on recommendations 5 and 6 above, Ministers should consider repealing outdated legislation allowing for the establishment of statutory Marine Nature Reserves in Scotland.
(drafted by Michael Scott, chair MNC workstream; 11.01.07)
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