CurrentMCZs(Marine
ConservationZones)Recommended
MCZs (Wales)Safe havens
“This report says we
are late to the party
and we need to get
on with it.”
T
he Government has signalled
its intention to pursue a radical
new approach to the conservation
of England’s sea and coastal areas,
with the publication of a report
into Highly Protected Marine
Areas (HPMAs).
For the first time, ministers will
consider banning almost everything
from extractive mineral industries
to commercial and recreational
fishing from large areas of Britain’s
territorial waters to permit their
ecological recovery.
HPMAs are also being touted
as critical carbon sinks to offset
the impacts of climate change.
“Global marine sediment carbon
stocks can be equal in size or
greater than terrestrial carbon
stocks such as forests,” the report
states. “With greater protection, the
ecosystems’ ability to provide carbon
sequestration will increase.”Former environment minister
Richard Benyon chaired the
panel that compiled the report.
He told BBC Wildlife that the
Government now needed to act on
its recommendations. “The Treasury
has said there will be no more than
five pilot HPMAs. If that was the sole
ambition of the Government, that
would be a great shame. We need
many more than that.”
Callum Roberts, professor
of marine conservation at the
University of York, was also one
of the panel members. He said
he believed that the Department
for Environment, Food & Rural
Affairs (Defra) was committed
to creating HPMAs. “This report
says we are late to this party and
we need to get on with it, though
we have had our hands tied by the
Treasury saying we can only have
five pilot sites,” Roberts adds.The Marine Conservation
Society (MCS) said HPMAs are
the “gold standard” of marine
conservation and have been
proven to improve biological diversity
and abundance.“We want to see
tangible action in delivering HPMAs
by World Oceans Day 2021,” Dr
Jean-Luc Solandt wrote on the MCS
website. “This plan must deliver at
least 30 HPMAs that are not less
than 100km² in size each and in both
coastal and offshore waters.”
In an email to BBC Wildlife,
Solandt said the Government had
failed to protect the 355 Marine
Protected Areas we already have.
“If we eliminated trawling from
these sites, then our ecosystems
andfishstockswouldbeina much
betterstate,”hesays.JamesFairFIND OUT MORE Benyon Review
into HPMAs: bit.ly/2CV4ULW