Marine protected areas in the UK – conservation or recovery?
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| Trefwoord |
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| Author keywords |
Marine protected areas; MPA networks; Conservation versus recovery; MPA management |
| Abstract |
Ambition in the UK has shifted from early, often unsuccessful efforts at small site conservation to planned networks of MPAs designed to deliver large scale environmental improvement. The UK is in the final stages of creating an ‘ecologically coherent network’ of MPAs in its territorial waters, with close to a quarter of those waters now designated as a form of marine protected area. A stated purpose of the network of MPAs is that it ‘contributes to the conservation or improvement of the marine environment in the UK marine area’ (Marine and Coastal Access Act, 2009). Though the effectiveness of the legislation to designate and manage MPAs has improved and the level of ambition has increased greatly, some policy approaches to both designation and management may reduce the effectiveness of the network to deliver that desired improvement. |
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