Wildlife and Countryside Link has produced a briefing, ‘The road to success for new Highly Protected Marine Areas’. The briefing states that: The Government has committed to introduce Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAs) in English waters by the end of this year. This hugely welcome new designation could provide much needed sanctuaries for our threatened marine life, which is being failed by our current Marine Protected Area (MPA) network. If delivered effectively and at scale HPMAs can help the UK achieve numerous objectives, including:

• UK Marine Strategy Regulations 2010: goal to achieve or maintain Good Environmental Status in UK seas, next assessment in 2024.
• Climate Change Act 2008: goal of net-zero emissions by 2050 through the protection of vital blue carbon habitats.
• The Environment Act 2021: legally-binding target to reverse the decline in species abundance by the end of 2030.
• Levelling Up agenda: international evidence shows that effective marine protections bring jobs and economic opportunities to coastal regions through increased tourism and recreational activity and the potential for improved fish catches outside marine protected areas (the spillover effect).

However, in order to achieve these benefits, the Government must ensure that HPMAs are delivered in the right manner:

• Strong protections: HPMAs must provide a higher level of protection than other types of MPA, allowing these marine areas to recover to as natural a state as possible. To date, there are no areas of English waters fully protected from all extractive or damaging human activities.
• Delivered strategically as part of the wider MPA network: HPMAs have an important role to play in achieving the Government’s goal of 30×30 (protecting 30% of the sea for nature by 2030). To achieve 30×30, a high proportion of England’s MPA network should consist of properly designed and managed HPMAs.
• Funding: Sufficient funding is required to ensure that HPMAs are well managed, monitored and enforced, with benefits communicated to local communities to ensure their success.
• Management: A complete management and monitoring programme should be in place for each site from designation, with monitoring undertaken to determine how different ecosystems recover when pressures are reduced, alongside assessments of the social and economic benefits HPMAs are likely to afford.
• Site selection: HPMAs must be sufficient in size and number, in each regional sea, in inshore, nearshore and offshore English waters, so they encompass a range of ecosystems.

The full briefing paper can be found here.

In other protected area news, the Scottish Government announced two new protected sites in Orkney for vulnerable seabirds.

An area larger than the size of Edinburgh and Glasgow combined has been designated as marine Special Protection Areas (SPAs). Scapa Flow and North Orkney, covering a total area of 529 square kilometres, have been designated to protect rare and vulnerable migratory wild birds, which include the great northern diver and slavonian grebe.

These new designations largely complete the network of SPAs, with fourteen sites across Scotland’s seas. The two Special Protection Areas announced today add to the protected area network which covers 37% of the Scottish inshore and offshore regions.

Further information on management advice, conservation objectives and site information is available on NatureScot and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee.