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The Nature of Scotland Awards 2014 are now open for entries! The awards celebrate excellence, innovation and outstanding achievement in Scottish nature conservation, and nominations are welcomed across eight categories:

Marine Conservation; Sustainable Development; Politician of the Year; Innovation; Outstanding Contribution; RSPB Species Champion; Community Initiative; Youth and Education.

The Marine Conservation Award recognises an outstanding contribution to the conservation of sustainable management of Scotland’s precious marine resources. Last year’s winner, Nick Riddiford, has worked tirelessly to establish better marine protection around Fair Isle. The Fair Isle Marine Environment & Tourism Initiative is a management regime sympathetic to the long-term needs of the sea and its users; most particularly the island community for whom a healthy, protected marine environment is socially and economically essential.

This year RSPB Scotland is looking for another marine conservation hero. (more…)

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As the building blocks for a network of MPAs develop, a new paper by Heriot Watt researcher Kate Gormley[1] explores what considerations for management are affected by network design.

Human activities now place heavy pressures on marine ecosystems around the world and, as a result, there has been an unprecedented increase in proposed Marine Protected Areas. Scientists have previously considered what MPAs may achieve and how they might be distributed to achieve the set biological objectives for those specific areas and minimise social and economic impacts. In the present study, however, we have considered the longer-term effort required to manage MPAs and the consequences of selecting one MPA over another with differing conservation objectives, at different locations and different proximities to human activities. (more…)

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A report published today reveals how Scottish Government plans to create a network of marine protected areas (MPAs) have received the popular backing of people from across Scotland. Save Scottish Seas campaigners contend there is now a strong democratic duty, as well urgent ecological need, to set up MPAs to help recover Scotland’s damaged sealife.

Over 14,000 people responded to the public consultation on proposals for 33 new MPAs last summer, the vast majority of which indicated popular support for stronger protection of Scotland’s sealife with a full network. We are now urging the Scottish Government to take heed of public opinion and secure a network that will help the seas recover from centuries of over-exploitation. We argue that Scottish legislation passed by MSPs in 2010 places an overriding legal duty on Ministers to both protect and enhance Scotland’s marine environment.

Read the official analysis of the public consultation (Planning Scotland’s Seas: Possible Nature Conservation Marine Protected Areas. Consultation Analysis Report) and view our full press release (99% support for Scottish MPAs).

More news on this soon….

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For the past seven years, WWF has spread the worrying word about climate change by encouraging people around the world to reduce the energy consumption and take practical action for one hour by turning off their lights. Hopefully one day, all diaries, calendars and year-planners on the planet will have Earth Hour inked into the slot on the last Saturday in March, alongside St Patrick’s Day and other worldwide festivals. But as a new, present-day tradition is created, there are probably still a few organisations which are unlikely ever to be able to take part in Earth Hour. One that springs to mind is the Northern Lighthouse Board (NLB). I don’t think it would (more…)

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The Scottish Government has recently consulted on the first ever National Marine Plan for Scotland, and the detail of this plan is currently being drafted. We are writing a series of articles to highlight why ecosystem-led planning is essential for the success of our marine environment and economy. In this article, we look at the spectrum of environmental considerations for developing marine renewable energy, and how Scotland would benefit from more coordinated environmental data-gathering.

It’s a staggering fact, but Scotland’s sea area is six times the size of its terrestrial land mass. Its territorial waters bulge westwards beyond Rockall to a distance of 550 miles from the mainland (more…)

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The following video shows a walkover of the marine litter that has washed up on the shores of Arrochar in the first two weeks of 2014. The words ‘crying shame’ spring to mind, because this is such a graphic, in-your-face example of the damaged state of our seas.

Arrochar is nestled at the head of Loch Long, a slender sea loch that stretches 20 miles north from the Firth of Clyde towards the majestic slopes of the Lomond hills. Once the site of a thriving West coast fishery, the village is more dependent on tourism than the bounty from diminished fish stocks. But Arrochar’s few hundred metres of usually postcard-worthy shoreline have been transformed by a tide of seaweed tangled up with masses of rubbish. The ratio looks like about 2 parts seaweed to one part plastic. (more…)

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Recently the BBC aired a documentary on the ‘”Top Ten Battlegrounds of Independence.” While it is a welcome attempt to develop the debate on our constitutional future, it is also a deep disappointment. The Scottish voter’s needs and future aspirations have been reduced to a set of soundbite issues (pensions, currency, broadcasting etc). And although they predictably identified some very important issues (including… err… the economy and various subsets of it) as areas most ripe for campaign skirmishes, the environment receives only a passing mention in the “energy battleground”, about which fuel bills are judged to be our main concern.

What a sad indictment on Scottish politics that public debate about our environment – and the way we (more…)

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Over 10,000 people have responded to the Scottish Government’s consultation in support of plans to set up a network of marine protected areas (MPAs) in Scottish waters. The 16-week consultation – which ran throughout the summer – closed in mid-November and canvassed views on MPA sites around the Scottish coast as well as feedback about the plans in general. Campaigning by environmental charities in Scotland led to a groundswell of support for the MPAs, but also highlighted that the network needs to fill in the ‘ecological gaps’ by creating sites for seabirds, whales, dolphins and other vulnerable seabed species and habitats currently afforded inadequate protection from a growing range of pressures at sea. You can read coverage of the coalition campaign here. View a BBC Scotland slideshow of marine pictures here

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Over 30 events have been held across Scotland since August about government plans to develop a network of MPAs. Peter Cunningham, biologist at the Wester Ross Fisheries Trust – who attended an event in Poolewe – says that local engagement with the proposal is essential…

Around 30 local people attended our local Marine Protected Area (MPA) drop-in event in September. Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) staff were on hand to explain the North West Sea Lochs and Summer Isles MPA proposal and offer more information about the underpinning science. It provided a very useful forum to air and discuss emerging views on the proposed MPA. The proposed MPA encompasses (more…)

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