07 Oct 2024
The annual update from Wildlife and Countryside Link (WCL) into progress in England on the target to protect 30% of land and sea for nature by 2030 (the “30×30 target”) has been published. Campaigners are calling for a rapid rescue package for nature – including designating more English waters as Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAs). The annual […]
01 Oct 2024
The Wales Net Zero 2035 Challenge Group has published a series of seven reports. Commissioned by the leaders of the Welsh Government and Plaid Cymru through the 2021 Cooperation Agreement, the reports aim to renew and rapidly accelerate Wales’s approach to achieving net zero. The Group is led and Chaired by the former Welsh Assembly […]
24 Sep 2024
The Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) has submitted advice to the Defra Secretary of State on reviewing and updating Government’s Environmental Improvement Plan. Steve Reed, Secretary of State Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, has announced a review of the EIP with the intention of developing ‘ambitious new plans to save nature’. He has formally requested […]
03 Sep 2024
A new paper titled “Over 80% of the European Union’s marine protected area only marginally regulates human activities” has assessed how protected marine protected areas (MPAs) really are in the EU. The researchers looked at the level of protection of 4,858 EU MPAs based on the MPA Guide and found that in 2022, MPAs covered […]
06 Aug 2024
A Private Members Bill to regulate and limit bottom trawling in MPAs, introduced by Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick, has had its first reading in the House of Lords. As currently drafted it states that the regulations must prohibit bottom trawling in MPAs. These are defined as including Marine Conservation Zones, Nature Conservation Marine Protected Areas, […]
15 Jul 2024
The European Parliamentary Research Service has released a comprehensive study titled “Exploring the viability of innovative fishing technologies as an alternative to bottom trawling in European marine protected areas.” Fisheries in Europe’s marine environment use different types of mobile and static fishing gears that come into contact with the seabed, including mobile bottom-contacting gears (MBCGs) […]
06 May 2024
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DAERA) has published a consultation on the review of Northern Ireland’s Marine Protected Areas strategy. Since the publication and implementation of the original Marine Protected Area (MPA) Strategy in 2014, several key strategic policy drivers have been developed at global, UK and Northern Ireland levels relating to […]
06 May 2024
To coincide with the Our Ocean conference, a new report, co-authored by Marine Conservation Society, Seas At Risk and Oceana, shows that in the seven countries analysed, 4.4 million hours of apparent bottom trawling was allowed in MPAs between 2015-2023 – equivalent to more than 500 years’ worth of trawling. Using data compiled by Global Fishing Watch, the breadth and […]
