Change Your World
The April/May 2009 edition of the Friends of the Earth Local Groups magazine, Change Your World, features an interview with Marine Reserves campaign co-ordinator, Bill Rigby. The magazine is available as a PDF download on the Friends of the Earth website, but we also reproduce the article below.
Local groups are working together to protect and enhance the marine environment around the UK coast. Bill Rigby explains why reserves are the way forward.
Q What is MARINET?
The marine information network of Friends of the Earth local groups. We have about 40 member groups and we provide an information service on marine issues.
Q What’s the key problem you’re tackling?
Our priority now is to persuade the Government to improve its Marine nad Coastal Access Bill. We know less about the sea than we do about the surface of the moon, yet it contains most of the biomass of the planet, and the majority of the biodiversity.
Humanity is damaging this mysterious ecosystem through overfishing and the use of damaging fishing gear but also through extraction of oil, sand and gravel. Our sewage system decants untreated waste, and coastal and harbour management practices have serious impacts. Stocks of key species are near extinction, and many others at unsustainable levels.
Q Why are Marine Reserves the solution?
There is a real need to regulate and protect this better – existing legislation is confusing and ineffective. The concept of Marine Reserves – exclusive no-take zones – cuts through the confusion by saying “leave 30 per cent of our seas, out to 200 miles, alone for a very long time” with the remaining 70 per cent used for business as usual. This method was recommended by the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution (RCEP) and is backed by a huge body of scientific opinion. But it is missing from the Marine Bill.
Q What progress have you made?
We have an Early Day Motion (EDM 337) with all-party support which in a few weeks has reached number 12 out of over 700 EDMs. It simply asks for the RCEP recommendation to be incorporated in the bill.
We have strong support from MPs, major conservation agencies, senior academics, Greenpeace, the Marine Conservation Society and the Co-op, a major buyer of fish, which is running a campaign through its shops.
We are regularly meeting and briefing key members of the House of Lords, where the bill is being discussed.
TAKE ACTION
Write to or talk with your MP about EDM 337. Write a letter to the press (MARINET can suggest wording) or organise a public meeting on the issue. MARINET can help you with speakers and send materials.
Join the campaign at marinet.org.uk
Tags: Friends of the Earth, MARINET