Both Cornwall and The Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trusts are celebrating the long awaited Marine and Coastal Access Bill which gained Royal Assent on Thursday 12th November to become the Marine and Coastal Access Act. This Act, if effectively implemented, provides the unique opportunity to conserve marine habitats and species around the coast of England.
Tom Hardy, Marine Conservation Officer for the Cornwall Wildlife Trust said “The seas around the UK are suffering from the effects of intensive commercial fishing, climate change, pollution, dredging and development. The Marine and Coastal Access Act represents our chance to reverse this trend and start to protect and manage the marine ecosystem as a whole.”
“Finally getting Royal Assent for the new Marine Act represents the culmination of many years of campaigning by The Wildlife Trusts and we hope the it will live up to our high expectations and give us the tools we need to help us protect our marine environment.”
The new Marine Act will revolutionise the way marine management is approached in English Seas. It will create a new holistic marine planning system designed to bring together the conservation, social and economic needs of our seas. Businesses and marine industries will benefit from a more streamlined consenting and licensing system through the creation of the Marine Management Organisation. A new range of sanctions will also provide a stronger but more flexible approach to marine environment and fisheries enforcement.
Central to the years of campaigning by The Wildlife Trusts is new legislation to improve nature conservation in the marine environment. Marine Conservation Zones (MCZs) will be created that will protect not just rare and threatened species and habitats but create an ecologically coherent network of protected areas.
Tom Hardy said: “The creation of Marine Conservation Zones is a fantastic opportunity to halt and reverse the damage and degradation of the marine environment by controlling the human activities conducted in certain areas. We are also particularly happy to see that there will be both a network of these Conservation Zones and that the network will include Highly Protected Marine Reserves.”
The process to determine where MCZs should be placed is being coordinated in the South West by a partnership project called Finding Sanctuary. Finding Sanctuary is working with all stakeholders to plan new MCZs in the South West and will make their recommendations to Government in June 2011.
Tom Hooper, Finding Sanctuary’s Project Manager said ”We believe that the people and groups that could be affected by Marine Conservation Zones should be involved in deciding where they are located and how they are managed. We have therefore brought together a balanced and representative Steering Group of stakeholder interests to plan Marine Conservation Zones for the South West. This will ensure that decisions are made collaboratively and will encourage stronger local support.”
