The development of the Marine Protected Area (MPA) network is being undertaken in collaboration with marine stakeholders. Engagement is a key element of the process, although the nature, timing and those involved may vary.
MPA Newsletter
At the last MPA workshop in June, you asked to be kept updated on progress and a newsletter was agreed as the best means to provide this update. The latest edition of the MPA newsletter is now available.
Draft Management Handbook
Stakeholder participation in the development of management measures is key to the successful delivery of a well managed network. The project partners have been having meetings with a large number of you as representatives of the various organisations and interests who have been involved in the MPA identification process to gather comments on the draft management handbook.
An updated copy of the draft Management Handbook is now available for information following comments we have received. There will be a further, final update when we have developed example conservation objectives for inclusion in the handbook.
Please remember, should you wish to comment, that the key overall objective of the MPA network is to safeguard our most important natural and cultural heritage features in Scottish waters based on the principle of sustainable use, and well informed consensual management will be critical to achieving this objective.
MPA Workshops
5 MPA workshops were held between March 2011 and June 2012. These focused on engaging national and international level organisations, or marine specialists, with an interest in the conservation and sustainable use of the marine environment.
All 5 of the workshop reports and direct outputs are now available in one place. And all the workshop papers, outputs and reports can accessed below:
A full list of stakeholder interests that have attended, as well as who have been invited but have not attended, MPA workshops is available online.
The first workshop took place in March 2011 and focused on collation and review of ecological data.
The second workshop took place in June 2011 and focused on the review of initial results of an assessment of least damaged most natural locations. These locations were identified by the project partners as having little activity based on available data and may therefore be in a relatively natural state.
The third workshop was held on the 26th and 27th October 2011 and focused on the provisional results of the first application of the MPA selection guidelines.
The fourth workshop was held on the 14th and 15th March 2012 at Herriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, and introduced discussion of new MPA search locations and management.
The fifth workshop took place on the 27th and 28th June 2012 at Herriot-Watt University, Edinburgh. The focus of these discussions was the emerging shape of the proposed network and initial conclusions regarding achieving an ecologically coherent network, management through the use of case studies and feedback on example consultation documents.
Third Party Proposals
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.