Get ready for another three-letter acronym!
MC Zed
Sounds like the latest club sensation? Well no. MCZs are Marine Conservation Zones. They sound good don’t they?
They should be, they are one of the key outcomes from all the lobbying we (and that more than likely includes you) put into getting the Marine Act into law. Well we’ve been seriously short changed.
The criteria for the proposed MCZs don’t include seabirds. And here's a puffin making it's views clear.
The actual job of identifying MCZs rests with regional panels which will take decisions based on guidance. RSPB colleagues from around the country have stepped up to the job of sitting on these panels – they will all be starting from a distinct disadvantage. Here's a bit more on this story.
We now have a recipe for MCZs which is the equivalent of tomato-less pizza, hole without the toad, egg and chips without … you get the point!
One explanation might be that the Government is expecting the international designations of marine Special Protection Areas to do the job for birds. When we have one – it will be of great importance, but in the thirty-one years since the legislation was passed we’ve got but one (with two more in the pipeline). For nationally important places for birds at sea there is a real risk that they will be left out completely. However, this is still only draft guidance and we will pushing hard to get seabirds back on the list of criteria.