Marine Protected Areas 'must do better' for Scotland's sealife

Stuart Housden, Director of RSPB Scotland, on the Scottish Government's plans for Marine Protected Areas.

Marine Protected Areas 'must do better' for Scotland's sealife

If London’s streets were said to be paved with gold, Scotland’s riches come in a more liquid form.  Throughout our history, Scotland’s seas have been the place to make fortunes: from the boom years of commercial fishing, through the extraction of hydrocarbons and vast expansion of aquaculture, to the modern day, with renewable energy the new industry on the block.  With all this activity, it became clear that marine environmental protection- and with it, better planning- were critical. 

Following a decade of campaigning, RSPB Scotland were delighted to see the Marine (Scotland) Act finally become law in 2010.  We even went so far as to brief our partners in the EU about its excellence. After years of the Marine environment being the poor cousin, here was an opportunity to ensure it was placed at the heart of decisions on how and where human activity took place at sea. And there is no doubt the legislation is commendable in its scope and approach.

The origins of this legislation (and its English equivalent) lie in the “OSPAR Commission”- which implements the Oslo & Paris Conventions on the North East Atlantic.  This initiative was taken forward at the 2002 Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development where world leaders agreed to a network of marine protected areas by the end of 2012.  I was pleased to be present at this gathering and even more delighted to see Scottish ministers lead the way in supporting this commitment.

What an opportunity it is too, full of ambitious commitments which should help recover Scotland’s beleaguered seas, including duties on ministers to declare a network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and create a National Marine Plan. Cross-party and industry support gave this idea real momentum, which one might have expected to continue for many years after the words became law.

Now, 10 years after the summit,  and  a couple of years since the legislation was passed, the reality is rather different. The plans to roll-out marine renewable energy and an oil and gas strategy aiming at £30bn in annual sales continue apace but we are still without the National Marine Plan, now two years late – the very document that is supposed to ensure these activities happen sustainably and that essential marine assets, especially wildlife, are not damaged inadvertently by the dash for development.

Most worryingly, the process of identifying protected areas – the cornerstone of any conservation programme - is the greatest missed opportunity. The marine environment has been notoriously under protected; despite Scotland’s international importance for marine creatures, from the highly visible seabirds and cetaceans, through to undersea communities of corals and sponges.  It has too often been out of sight and out of mind.  There is not one protected area safeguarding the important places where seabirds feed at sea. We hoped this would be rectified by the process to identify MPAs, but sadly they have been almost completely ignored in the process of selecting the proposed MPAs. The Scottish Government says seabirds will be adequately protected by sites designated under EU legislation – the current state of play gives us little faith that this will be the case with modest areas alongside breeding colonies protected, but nothing to safeguard the huge congregations found around our seas in the autumn and winter.

It is a big leap forward to have new protected areas in Scotland’s seas – but why the lack of ambition? Why, despite the promises made, does the environment get sidelined by politicians as secondary to economic interests? Even economically speaking, this is short-sighted - work commissioned by Scottish Environment LINK conservatively indicated that a network of Marine Protected Areas could bring as much as £10 billion in economic ‘value’ over 20 years to our economy.

Ecological sustainability is the foundation of economic sustainability. Surrounded as we are by such dazzling seascapes and productive waters, the Scottish Government forgets that at our peril.