For decades now, Scotland has managed activities within its seas, such as renewables, oil and gas development and aquaculture, through separate, sector-specific planning guidance – but now things are changing. Serious declines in the health of our marine environment as a result of human activities at sea and around our coasts became an urgent driver for a much more coordinated approach to management. Following ground-breaking legislation (the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010), the Scottish Government developed the first National Marine Plan (NMP), which serves as a definitive statutory guide on how to plan developments at sea, to conserve and enhance the marine environment, reduce conflict and simplify current systems. The novel challenge of marine planning is not just to prevent further decline but to enable ecological recovery, whilst guiding development. Since the Plan’s adoption in March, the focus is now shifting to its urgent delivery via a series of Regional Marine Planning Partnerships (RMPPs), each with their own regional plan over the coming years.
But what does this actually mean for Scotland’s planning culture? Marine spatial planning is an emerging discipline defined by UNESCO as ‘a public process of analysing and allocating the spatial and temporal distribution of human activities in marine areas to achieve ecological, economic, and social objectives that usually have been specified through a political process.’ It is something of an unknown quantity to scientists and planners alike – not least because much of the area requiring management lies underwater and is not easily seen or surveyed. There is therefore simply less of the data required to inform good planning compared to the interlinked terrestrial system.
There is also a growing awareness of marine environmental issues in Scotland, with many community interests seeking to be proactively involved in the management of their local sea area. How do planners go about communicating complex policy processes to interested members of the public who wish to participate, but don’t always know where to start? This presents an overlapping challenge to the Scottish Government’s stated ‘Community Empowerment’ agenda currently in the Parliamentary pipeline.
The challenges we now face for effective implementation of the NMP in Scotland are inevitably the same as those for terrestrial planning 50 years ago, but in that respect we have the opportunity to learn from those processes and apply principles of good practice to marine planning. Significantly increased resourcing will be needed to support regional plans and those with the responsibility to develop and deliver them. This will mean ensuring the Marine Planning Partnerships and local authorities have access to the right expertise, funding, data and tools to make informed and appropriate decisions about developments in the sea. There is also an urgent need to improve mechanisms for cross-boundary collaboration, not only across political and geographical boundaries, but also between terrestrial and marine areas, as activities in either domain have the potential to affect the other. Communities, particularly in coastal areas, must be part of the planning process and significant awareness-raising efforts are required to improve the level of understanding of marine issues so that our communities can be effective agents within the planning system.
Above all, the principles of sustainable development must underpin the development of marine plans, with environmental protection and enhancement the key focus, to ensure the protection of our seas and the flow of goods and services they provide for future generations.
Esther Brooker, Marine Policy Officer, Scottish Environment LINK Published in Scottish Planner, Summer Issue/#162/June 2015
There is sometimes a wee temptation to get carried away with good news, but this summer there are promising signs of change for Scotland’s seas – in the form of proposals to better safeguard 16 marine protected areas (MPAs) in our inshore waters, and thus help provide the breeding grounds for marine recovery.
When first mooted, MPAs were seen by some as a distraction. Better protecting parts of our seas would risk displacing activities elsewhere and only ever be a partial fix for the declining health of our whole marine environment. The reply from Scotland’s environment community was that, yes, we need ecosystem-based marine planning and improved fisheries management, but we strongly support MPAs also, as a significant tool to help start reversing the decline in the health of our seas.
We are well underway now. For the past three years, the Scottish Government has been busy prioritising the parts of Scotland’s seas that urgently need strategic management. It has been a complex, at times frustrating, process that has risked stakeholder fatigue – not least from fishermen, some of whom see it as an unwelcome addition to their regulatory burdens.
As environmental advocates, we have tried to understand this, and have aimed at being constructive within the process. We have pressed for meaningful areas to be protected, and for management for the long-term good of our seas, and all who depend on their health.
Accordingly, we launched our “Don’t take the ‘P’ out of MPAs” campaign, aimed at government Ministers. Our message echoed what many communities around Scotland’s coastline are also saying. The health of our seas is clearly failing and urgent action is needed. Over 4,700 people responded to the Scottish Government consultation. Communities up and down the country, from the Clyde to Wester Ross, contributed to a groundswell for conservation management. Their message was simple. The plans were too complex and lacked ambition.
The response from Cabinet Secretary Richard Lochhead has been impressive. He has heard these voices, listened and acted. The management proposals for the 16 sites are now simpler and stronger. Many will see restrictions on dredging, and have enlarged no-go areas for bottom-trawling gear.
A heartening example of where this will help sea life is in the Loch Sunart to Sound of Jura MPA, one of the few remaining strongholds for the common skate. Tragically, this impressive two metre wing-spanned animal is no longer common, as a result of over-exploitation. This was due to its life-history making it unsuitable for targeted fishing. Committed sea anglers have since gone to great lengths to catch, tag and return the diminishing population, thus identifying the site’s importance.
Where previously the government’s proposal was to restrict dredging and trawling in just the deepest part of the Sound, now, following the advice of marine scientists and feedback from local communities, the proposal is to safeguard other deep areas and adjacent, shallower waters, where skate breed and feed. In short, this is an ecologically proportionate – and necessary – response to the urgent protection and recovery of a globally endangered species.
Progressive management like this is proposed for most of the other 15 sites, although there are still some exceptions, such as the waters of Loch Fyne, where improvements could still be made.
The response to the latest proposals from our fishermen has been incredibly significant – mainly because it is so mixed. ‘Mobile gear’ fishermen who dredge the sea floor, mostly for scallops, face new restrictions in 3% of our inshore waters, and are deeply concerned by the changes. But ‘static gear’ fishermen, who use creels to fish, and have a much lower seabed impact, have been broadly supportive.
Some creelers (whose vessels constitute 70% of the Scottish inshore fleet) even argue that the measures do not go far enough to resolve many of the contentious issues facing inshore fishery. Their representatives are urging more wide-ranging spatial management, similar to regulations long used by our Scandinavian neighbours.
As stakeholders across Scotland contemplate their response to the proposals, we entreat them to keep their eye on the grand prize. If we introduce management that encourages ecological bounce-back, inshore fish and shellfish productivity will be improved, lower impact fishing opportunities can be boosted, and marine tourism will be supported.
In addition, the measures will help address a much broader challenge that we face. Kelp forests and seagrass beds lock up millions of tonnes of carbon in the seabed every year. In protecting and encouraging the recovery of these “blue carbon” stores, MPAs can play their part in tackling climate change.
For all of us, the prize to keep in mind is the enhanced sea life which sustains us all.
Calum Duncan Marine Conservation Society Convenor of LINK Marine Taskforce
Dr Phoebe Cochrane, LINK’s Sustainable Economics Policy Officer
GDP figures released today for Scotland show us that the Scottish economy grew by 0.6% during the first quarter of 2015. GDP is the most widely reported metric and to increase GDP is a central aim of many governments, including the Scottish Government. However, GDP is very limited in what it measures – essentially measuring how busy our economy has been, with no regard to the social or environmental impact of that economic activity.
As Robert Kennedy famously stated in 1968, ‘it (GDP) measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.’ We need to remember our economy is a means to wellbeing, not an end in itself, and a measure of the scale of economic activity alone is not an adequate proxy for how well Scotland is really doing. Additionally, both wellbeing and the economy are intimately linked to our natural environment on which we all rely and which we have a duty to protect for future generations of all species.
The scale and type of economic activity we engage in continues to erode our natural environment, so increases in GDP need to be considered in the context of other indicators.
For example, a Scottish Government press release on May 14th celebrated the ‘record high’ volume and value of fish landings and the importance of fish to our economy. However, the Scotland Performs indicator for the marine environment shows us that fishing rates are unsustainable with only 38% of our total catch consistent with scientific guidance (2014 data).
Latest figures for breeding seabird populations also suggest that the health of our marine ecosystems are under threat with numbers of 12 key species declining by 42% since 1986. Terrestrial breeding birds, the Scottish Government’s own indicator for biodiversity, show a decrease of 10% between 2012 – 2013, during which time the economy grew by 1.7%.
And latest figures on our carbon footprint (which includes emissions associated with imported goods) shows that, despite our reduction in domestic emissions, our climate change impact is still increasing – Scotland’s carbon footprint increased by 5% between 2011 and 2012.
As the above examples show, one of the main challenges we face in promoting the use of wider indicators in parallel with GDP is the time lag between the reporting period and the release of data. There needs to be a concerted effort to address this and to report and discuss these indicators more widely.
Scottish Environment LINK is promoting a suite of indicators that can adequately reflect the health of our environment, the wellbeing of society and the state of our economy to the Scottish Government through the National Performance Framework review process. There are plans for a public consultation on the National Performance Indicators this summer, giving you an opportunity to tell the Scottish Government whether you think what they are measuring gives us the full picture.
THIS is an issue that needs to be confronted, says Kevin Dunion.
What has Europe ever done for us? Depending on the outcome of the general election, we may be assailed with claims that it is interfering and wasteful, with others stoutly defending its role in lowering trade barriers and upholding commonly agreed standards from Limerick to Limassol.
For example, it was through an EC directive, passed back in 1990 (and further strengthened by a new directive in 2003), that we acquired rights to access information on the environment. This was well before domestic freedom of information laws in Scotland, and in the rest of the UK, came into effect some ten years ago.
Now, at a time when there are real concerns that public services are being privatised or contracted-out, and consequently escaping from the obligations of FoI, these European-derived rights may prevent citizens’ rights to information being undermined. A particular feature of the directive is that it applies to private companies, if they are performing a “public administrative function”.
But what does this actually mean? It was only late last year that the European Court of Justice issued a judgment clarifying that it applies to entities “entrusted with the performance of services of public interest”, (including but not exclusively those in the environmental field) and which are “vested with special powers”.
This test recently led to an Upper Tribunal ruling that privatised water companies in England do have special powers, which include making compulsory purchase orders, powers to enter land and imposing hosepipe bans, enforceable through criminal sanctions. As a result, they must comply with environmental information requests.
Scottish Water remains in public ownership and so it has always been subject to the environmental information regulations and also to FoI law in Scotland more generally. But the point is the tests laid down by the European Court can be applied to the operators of other privatised services, including railway and energy companies (and perhaps also to some of the arms-length bodies set up by public authorities).
However, the information commissioners or courts cannot come to a view on the law without a request for information being made in the first place. It required dogged persistence by an angling organisation, Fish Legal, to force its request to water companies all the way to the European Court and back to a judge in England before the law was given effect.
It is difficult to recall a similar example pursued by a recognised voluntary body in Scotland, which is not to say significant requests have not been made by individual citizens and groups. It took a local shop steward to request the PFI contract that exposed the full costs of Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. A handful of parents used FoI to challenge the closure of rural schools, leading to a change in legislation. Questions from bereaved relatives helped expose the high levels of C difficile at Vale of Leven hospital.
However, it has always surprised me how few cases have been championed by third-sector bodies. The most recent annual report by the Scottish Information Commissioner shows only 3 per cent of appeals to her came from voluntary organisations, virtually unchanged from my time in the post.
Research by the University of Strathclyde suggests some reasons for this apparent inhibition. It found “almost half of all respondents stated that they would be discouraged from making a request because of a fear that it might harm working relations or funding relations or both.” The correlation was clear – the higher the level of funding an organisation receives from a public authority, the more likely they are to believe that using FOI could harm relations with the public authority. Given that almost all the organisations which responded were funded either wholly or in part by public authorities, such fears can have a chilling effect.
Many voluntary organisations were in the vanguard in pressing for freedom of information laws at a European and national level, and could be expected to be prominent requesters. We need to openly discuss why some are reluctant to be so, and consider who, without fear or favour, is willing to explore the potential of these hard-won rights.
This article was first published by The Scotsman on 5th May 2015
Kevin Dunion is honorary professor at the University of Dundee’s School of Law, was the first Scottish Information Commissioner and is a former director of Friends of the Earth Scotland.
OWNERSHIP is less important than stewardship, says John Thomson
In obvious respects, a nation’s land defines it, and helps to shape its culture.
So it is hardly surprising that questions relating to land have come to the fore in the continuing ferment of debate about Scotland’s future. Unsurprisingly, given the remarkable concentration of landownership in the country, much of this discussion revolves around the issue of ownership.
Far-reaching as the social and economic implications of differing patterns of ownership may be, the most fundamental question of all is surely whether it is being looked after in ways that maximise its value to the nation and the species we share the land with.
This is why Scottish Environment LINK sees it as vital that the discussions about land ownership proceed with parallel deliberations about future land use. The goal must be to strike the right balance between the public and private interests in land, taking particular care of the needs of the natural world.
The Scottish Government’s current consultation is therefore right to focus on the contribution that land reform can make to sustainable development – if this is defined in the way set out in the Shared UK Principles of Sustainable Development. These require harmonisation of social, economic and environmental objectives within environmental limits, informed by sound science and with active citizen involvement.
Equally crucial, in our view, is the responsible stewardship of land. Landholders of whatever type should be regarded as holding land “in trust” for the wider community – including both future generations and all the other species.
To have a truly sustainable future, Scotland must banish notions of exclusive possession – and of human dominion over nature. Any benefits, legal or fiscal, that society bestows upon those holding land should be conditional upon their safeguarding the public interest in its use and condition. Reciprocal rights and responsibilities are enshrined in the access provisions of the existing Land Reform Act; the time has come to extend the approach more widely.
We therefore welcome, in principle, the Scottish Government’s proposed Land Rights and Responsibilities Policy Statement. But we see it as vital that this vision and these principles are conjoined with the Land Use Strategy required by the Climate Change (Scotland) Act. Together, they should be at the top of the hierarchy, and integrate all the other relevant government strategies and plans for land.
The practical implications of all this might be best teased out in a code of responsible stewardship. Such a code might provide guidelines for the everyday management of land, taking account of the varying conditions across the country.
To be effective, a code would have to be complemented by a country-wide system of indicative land use strategies, of the kind prefigured by the pilot Regional Land Use Frameworks being prepared in Aberdeenshire and the Scottish Borders. Though not prescriptive, these documents might constitute the starting point for any attempt to identify the public interest in the management of any specific area of land.
They could also become the key to the allocation of public funds in programmes such as the Scottish Rural Development Programme and all land subsidies.
Such a regime would, of course, apply as much to communities (whether of place or of interest) as to individuals. While we enthusiastically support the goal of bringing unused physical assets into use for the benefit of local people, we have no doubt that, in their use of land, communities should be expected to meet exactly the same standards as all land managers.
Such a comprehensive and cohesive approach might go far to set Scotland’s treatment of its land on the more sustainable path that it so badly needs.
If land reform does not lead to major changes in attitude and behaviour, a unique, and possibly unrepeatable, opportunity will have been missed.
On the other hand, an ambitious, Scotland-wide effort to re-set the rules of the game could yield huge dividends, and could make Scotland the envy of much of the developed and developing world.
John Thomson is convenor of the Scottish Environment LINK Landscape Task Force
This article was first published by The Scotsman on 10th March 2015
Its nearly Valentine’s Day & our Species Champion MSPs have been busy showing their love for Scotland’s biodiversity!
This Valentine, Species Champions are showing their love for their species as part of Stop Climate Chaos’ For the Love Campaign (FTLO). FTLO gives people a way of showing what they love and how concerned they are about how climate change will effect it. You can read more about FTLO here. Our Champions are showing their love for their species and explaining how it is threatened by climate change and how we need to act now to save them.
Check out our video of the Champion MSPs professing their love this Valentine’s below. We didn’t lock ’em up in any dungeon; they came willing to record messages of love and warning during their busy schedule at Parliament. Make sure to also head to our YouTube channel to see individual videos of the MSPs waxing lyrical about their species.
Yet again, we’re delighted that another amazing species has been championed. This time the stunning Garden Tiger which is predominantly active at night has been championed by Margaret McCulloch MSP for Central Scotland.
Scottish Environment LINK’s Marine Taskforce will be hosting the following event:
How can marine spatial planning lead to a thriving natural marine environment in Scotland? This event will take place in the Conference Room at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (Arboretum Place, Edinburgh EH3 5NZ) on Thursday 12th February 2015 from 2pm – 6pm, followed by an informal reception and networking (until approximately 8pm).
The full programme is available to download. The event will feature presentations from keynote speakers in the planning sector:
• Anne-Michelle Slater (University of Aberdeen), a specialist in terrestrial and marine spatial planning law. • Rachel Shucksmith (NAFC Marine Centre, Shetland), manager of the Shetland Marine Spatial Plan project.
The presentations will be followed by group workshop sessions focusing on key topics under the theme: what tools are needed to take marine spatial planning from paper to practice? With marine spatial planning coming to the fore at national level, this event will facilitate timely thinking on how it can, and must, deliver sustainable development and ecosystem enhancement for Scotland’s seas. We are keen to gain a wide range of perspectives at this event and would welcome attendance from anyone with an interest in landscapes, terrestrial planning, ecological restoration, environmental law, participative democracy (or decision-making) and related areas.
For any further information, please contact Esther Brooker (esther @ scotlink.org).
We look forward to what promises to be a positive and productive event.
We are delighted to announce that our latest Species Champion is Liz Smith MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife who is now championing the Slender Scotch Burnet Moth. This rare moth is confined to the steep, south-facing slopes under basalt cliffs on Mull and is on the Scottish Biodiversity List; not a moment too soon to be championed then! Find out more by reading its’ fact sheet.
FOR THE first time, we now have the means to monitor and look after the ecological health of our seas, says Calum Duncan
FOR centuries, our seas have been heavily exploited for their fish, and as the highways of our trade. More recently a host of different, new industries, such as fossil fuel extraction, fish farming, recreation and renewable energy generation, have emerged and our seas are now far busier. Will the currently emerging planning system for our seas ensure that we manage and balance all of these interests for the wider public benefit?
Deep in the cultural fibre of coastal communities around Scotland, the decline of our fisheries and the broader health of our seas is felt as a painful environmental, economic and social loss. Village quaysides once bustled with the traffic of small boats, but our inshore fleet now struggles to make ends meet. Our bigger ports have become sites to facilitate industrial-scale fishing and provide the logistics for an energy boom, now switching all-too-slowly from fossil fuels to cleaner renewables. Our connections with the sea are changing.
Our seas and the life within them are a shared, national resource, yet until recently Scotland has not had the means to manage it effectively. Separate regimes, from Holyrood, Westminster and Brussels have regulated and licensed the different industries. They operated in regulatory silos, and the ecological health of our seas paid the price, entering a state of serious decline.
Under the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 (and its UK counterpart) we now have the golden opportunity to create an effective, integrated planning system to monitor and plan for the combined impacts of all this activity – and to deliver the statutory duty to “protect and, where appropriate, enhance” the marine environment.
Just as the current debate on land reform is about the best expression of the public and environmental interest, so is the implementation of the Marine Act. For the first time, we will be able to plan how we comprehensively look after our shared marine resources for the long-term.
The framework of the new, statutory National Marine Plan (NMP) can provide a mechanism for us to develop responsible industries, create jobs and taxable revenue streams for the benefit of all Scotland, and bring new hope to our coastal communities.
Amid the political ferment in post-referendum Scotland, Holyrood is currently in the process of ratifying the country’s first ever NMP. As we take this step we face a major choice. We can have a plan that continues to pretend that the seas have room for unlimited growth, or we can have one that seeks to repair their health and restore their potential. It is not clear, currently, in what direction we are headed. A quick look at the evidence suggests serious confusion.
There are grave concerns being voiced about growth targets for the aquaculture industry. Targets to increase production of farmed salmon and other products by 2020 might help to underpin trade relations with China, but they have never been subjected to the appropriate rigours of a planning system.
The draft NMP also contains disturbing contradictions as it seeks to maximise recovery of oil and gas reserves whilst also meeting ambitious climate change targets. Amazingly, the draft plan fails to even acknowledge the direct climate change impacts of burning oil and gas. This is a considerable weakness, given climate change is arguably the greatest challenge facing us all.
There is also a danger that the emergent Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) will lead towards few changes in fisheries management, despite strong emerging evidence that limits to dredging and trawling in inshore waters could lead to clear economic and environmental gains.
Instead of this confusion, we need to view environmental management not as a constraint, but as a means to achieve and safeguard the common good. Scottish Environment LINK’s members believe, firmly and fundamentally, that the NMP must set out a stronger vision of how to enhance our diminished marine environment. An invigorated Scotland can lead the world here and think for the longer term.
The lessons from land use can provide some encouragement. Our more experienced terrestrial planners, in forestry for example, have become well accustomed to thinking over long planning timeframes. The Scottish Forestry Strategy in 2009 established a programme to increase woodland cover in Scotland from 17 per cent to around 25 per cent in the second half of this century, to deliver broad economic, environmental and social objectives. Gradually, forestry developments are being integrated with other land uses, under the Land Use Strategy established by the Climate Change (Scotland) Act (2009).
We should apply some real vision and approach marine planning and “seabed use” in the same way as we do for terrestrial planning and land use strategy – but, as the emerging marine plans are scrutinised in Parliament, this has become urgent.
As the plans are finalised, LINK members will continue to press for a clear, long-term vision and the broader public interest.
Calum Duncan is convenor of Scottish Environment LINK’s marine taskforce
This article was first published by The Scotsman on January 13th 2015
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