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 […]
Defra: ‘Marine Conservation Zones: third tranche of designations consultation Consultation description We want to know what you think about our proposals to designate a further 41 MCZs around the UK. We are also seeking your views on plans to add new features to 12 existing MCZs. MCZs are areas of sea where we protect rare or important features from damaging […]
MCZs Mary Creagh, Chair of the Environmental Audit Committee (EAC), said: “The Government has not adequately responded to our concerns around Marine Protected Areas. Specifically, it has failed to outline a plan which addresses the delays in completing the Marine Conservation Zone network, continued to exclude reference areas from these Marine Conservation Zones, and taken […]
Paper by R.Enever, S.Lewin, A.Reese & T.Hooper Abstract: We describe and analyse data on fishing effort collected by interviewing 1914 fishermen between 2007 and 2010. Combining socio-spatial data collected through a voluntary mapping project called “FisherMap” with UK and European vessel satellite monitoring data provides high resolution, national-scale maps of distribution and relative intensity of […]
Several generations of us have grown up knowing what good process looks like. A great success was the Defra work leading to the Marine & Coastal Access Act which was deliberate and clear from the outset through to the completion of the Act. The unfolding ‘process’ of the T3 MCZs is a rather strange, ‘soundings’ […]
Welsh MPA inquiry The Climate change, environment and rural affairs Committee launched an inquiry into the management of marine protected areas in Wales last week. We are carrying out a call for evidence and a public survey via our website: Could replace with: Written evidence can be submitted using the proforma on the website […]
Christmas reading and watching. The Environmental Audit Committee get its MPA review underway. JNCC’s advice on offshore Marine Conservation Zones 2015-2017 Assessing progress towards an ecologically coherent network of MPAs in Secretary of State Waters In 2014 Defra commissioned JNCC to undertake a piece of work on ‘Assessing progress towards an ecologically coherent network of […]
MCS & TWT “The Government’s scientific advisors have provided proposals on where a final set of Marine Conservation Zones are needed around England. Leading marine conservation charities, the Marine Conservation Society and The Wildlife Trusts are excited about the plans, which are a positive step forward towards restoring our seas. The sites are being proposed […]