The Minister for Climate Change, Julie James, has announced the commencement of the Welsh Marine Conservation Zone (MCZ) designation pre-consultation engagement process.

Following the publication of the expert led ‘Biodiversity Deep Dive’ – commissioned by Welsh Government to assess how nature recovery across land and sea can best be accelerated – the Minister has said she is “committed to taking steps to strengthen Wales’ Marine Protected Area (MPA) network”.

Welsh Marine Conservation Zones designation process

In a statement, the Welsh Government said:

‘We are seeking data and evidence to support the next steps in the process to identify suitable areas for potential Marine Conservation Zone designations. The programme to date has identified large areas in which smaller areas are sought for designation to complete our network, predominantly in the offshore waters. Boundaries for potential sites have not been identified at this stage.  Documentation presenting the process undertaken by the project along with factsheets detailing the known evidence we currently hold for each Area of Search (A-H) can be found here. Documents of interest include:

• A ‘process document’ explaining the rationale and steps that the programme is undertaking to identify potential sites
• A document for each of the Areas of Search (labelled A to H) along with an ‘overview’ document that details the overarching information the project already holds
• A frequently asked questions (FAQ) document
• A ‘data submission form’ to provide further data and evidence to the project for consideration prior to the next stages

This is not a formal consultation at this stage but a call for data and evidence to guide further decision making.

Engagement sessions

The Welsh Government are holding outreach events: the engagement sessions will be held on the mornings, afternoons and evenings of Tuesday 29th November, Thursday 8th and Wednesday 14th December. There will also be one to one sessions available with the project team following the Area of Search presentations.

Long history

The designation of further MPAs has been a long running saga. Back in 2010, environmental groups were calling for the Welsh Government to ‘make the most of new powers protecting marine life’ which were afforded by the then year-old Marine Act. However, there was a fierce backlash against many of the proposals put forward subsequently and the process was eventually dropped. 

Resources:

• The statement by the Climate Change Minister, Julie James, can be read here.

• An overview of the ‘areas of search’ can be found here.

• An FAQ can be downloaded from this link.

• Detailed information on the process and areas of search can be found here.