Marine Scotland recognises that it is vital to protect marine biodiversity and ecosystems to ensure that the natural environment, and the diversity of industries which depend upon it, is safeguarded for the future.
The Marine (Scotland) Act and the UK Marine and Coastal Access Act both contain new powers to designate Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). These contribute to a range of measures to manage and protect our seas for current and future generations.
The legislation also requires that a network of MPAs in UK seas is created to protect biodiversity and geodiversity. The network will contribute to our agreement with international partners to create an ecologically coherent network of well-managed MPAs in the North East Atlantic.
Third Party Proposals update
Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to submit a Third Party Proposal for Nature Conservation and Demonstration and Research MPAs. Your Nature Conservation MPA proposals are highly valued and Marine Scotland hope to be able to make as much use of them as possible in the development of the MPA network. They are now being considered and assessed for their inclusion and contribution to the network. Demonstration & Research MPA proposals will be considered separately.
Due to the volume of proposals and the time required to satisfactorily assess the submissions in time for completion of this iteration of the network, new proposals for Nature Conservation MPAs will not unfortunately be able to be considered for this stage of network development. However Marine Scotland welcome any further applications - but please be aware that they may not be considered until the next 6 yearly review of the network.
Developing Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)
The development of the Marine Protected Area (MPA) network is being undertaken in collaboration with marine stakeholders. Three Workshops were conducted throughout 2011 and two more are being held in 2012. The next workshop - Workshop 4 - will be held on the 14th and 15th March and will identify search locations for the features that were missing from the last workshop and will introduce a management tool for discussion.
The workshop guide and position papers on the remaining MPA search features that were not included at the last workshop will be discussed at Workshop 4.
Further papers providing more information on the network in general are also now available, and will help inform understanding on Connectivity and start discussion on Management. The workshop will consider third party Nature Conservation MPA proposals where they overlap with MPA search locations identified for MPA search feature priorities. Full descriptions of the initial search locations as well as one page profiles for all MPA search features and the additional search location profiles.
Natura sites will form part of the overall MPA network, and this paper provides useful information on the latest Consultation on Special Areas of Conservation proposals.