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After years of pressure from NGOs and with huge public support, The Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 promised a coherent network of protection around the coast of England by 2012. Now 127 marine sites around England’s coast have been recommended by four regional stakeholder groups to become Marine Conservation Zones next year.
The recommendations are the result of two years of consultation with more than one million stakeholders involved including fishermen, conservationists and businesses. This has been the first ‘Big Society’ experiment where local stakeholders have decided together which areas of sea should be protected.
There is a concern that Government’s Statutory Nature Conservation Bodies (Natural England and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee) will recommend to Government that only a fraction of the 127 recommended sites are designated. This would result in a much smaller and less effective network of Marine Conservation Zones, leaving vulnerable and precious areas unprotected.
Joan Edwards, The Wildlife Trusts’ Head of Living Seas, said: ” A huge amount of work has been done to get a broad agreement on this network needed for the health and future productivity of our marine environment. Now, however, in the final stages the Government has lost it’s direction and is proposing to over-ride the recommendations of local stakeholders and cut the 127 sites down to an unrealistic 30 in contradiction with the aims of the new Marine and Coastal Access Act.
“With Wildlife Trusts all around the UK, we are lobbying hard for the successful completion of a process that will make the difference between the life or death of our seas. We need to demonstrate the weight of public support for the Marine Conservation Zones to Government. This is a once in a lifetime chance. We can’s afford to let it slip away.” Read More
