Please act now. Parliament is voting on this issue on Monday 26th October.

How to email your MP

1. Go to Friends of the Earth’s “Contact your MP” page and enter your postcode: http://www.foe.co.uk/community/resource/contact_mp.html
2. Choose “Email this MP”
3. Paste in the text under the “Suggested Letter” heading, remembering to add your MP’s name at the top and your own name at the bottom.

You can also visit your MP in your constituency this weekend (Friday/Saturday). Telephone your MP’s constituency office to find out whether this is possible.

Suggested Letter

Dear [MP Name],

Amendment 3 to Report Stage of Marine and Coastal Access Bill

I am asking for your support for Amendment 3 tabled by Katy Clark MP to the Report Stage of the Marine and Coastal Access Bill on Monday 26th October in the House of Commons. Amendment 3 relates to Clause 117 of the Bill, and reads:

Clause 117 : Grounds for the designation of MCZs (Amendment in bold)

(1) The appropriate authority may make an order under section 116 if it thinks that it is desirable to do so for the purpose of conserving -

(a) marine flora and fauna;
(b) marine habitats or types of marine habitat;
(c) features of geological or geomorphological interest;
(d) the marine ecosystem as a whole.

This amendment is concerned with placing highly protected marine reserves on the face of the Act. The protection of “the marine ecosystem as a whole” is the agreed definition of a highly protected marine reserve. The Government and the front bench of other parties have declared their commitment to highly protected marine reserves, but do not want a duty in law placed upon them to create such reserves. This amendment respects that declaration. Instead, it simply establishes a power to create highly protected reserves, without any duty to do so being placed on the Secretary of State.

Highly protected marine reserves are a key tool in the rebuilding of fish stocks and the repair of seriously damaged marine ecosystems. This amendment ensures that this tool will exist in law. It can only be used by the Secretary of State to protect fish stocks within the 6 nautical mile limit, but its existence in UK law will enable the Government to persuade the EU that a reform of the Common Fisheries Policy should embrace a similar power to protect our fish stocks from 6 nautical miles out to 200 nautical miles. This is a first step to secure this important change to the CFP.

As I say, Amendment 3 only creates a power and not a duty on the Secretary of State. So, may I ask you to consider placing your name to Amendment 3 on the Order Paper for Report Stage on 26th October, and that you will be in the House on that day to vote for Amendment 3.

Yours sincerely,

The Background

Our earlier advice to you about writing to your MP to ask him/her to support the amendment of Clause 123 of the Marine Bill no longer applies. The members of the Wildlife and Countryside Link with whom we were in partnership on this amendment now no longer want to push the amendment to Clause 123 to the vote. Thus, highly protected marine reserves will not be placed on the face of the Bill or become a legal entity by this means. MARINET is therefore withdrawing from the Clause 123 amendment.

The good news, we have managed to table an entirely new amendment which will be a Voting Amendment i.e. the wording will be on the fact of the Act and will have legal force. This is an amendment to Clause 117. It is being tabled by Katy Clark MP, and full details are in the attached letter we want you to send to your MP.

This amendment, known as Amendment 3 on the House of Commons Order Paper for the Report Stage of the Bill, will be debated and voted upon on Monday, 26th October.

As you will appreciate, this is only 7 days away. We therefore need you to act immediately in sending your letter to your MP asking him/her to vote for Amendment 3 on Monday 26th October.

Your need to act now is made more urgent by the fact that there is a Postal Strike on Thursday 22nd / Friday 23rd October. Your letter must arrive with your MP by Friday 23rd October. Therefore the options for you to get your message to your MP are:

1. Send your letter first class by the last post on Tuesday 20th October to guarantee postal delivery. The postal address of the House of Commons is Westminster, London SW1A 0AA.
2. Send you letter in an email to your MP, explaining that you are doing so because of the postal strike. The email address of most MPs is their surname followed the initial of their first christian name. Thus if your MP’s name is John Brown, his email address is brownj@parliament.uk Nearly all MPs use this address system, but the odd one does not. If you find your email is returned undelivered, visit http://www.parliament.uk/mpslordsandoffices/mps_and_lords/alms.cfm where you will be able to obtain the email address (Click on the first letter of the MP’s surname on the key facility, and then scroll across to the right to visit the foot of the page of their parliamentary biographical details, or visit their website). Any difficulty, contact me.
3. You can visit your MP in your consituency this weekend (Friday/Saturday). Telephone your MP’s constituency office to find out whether this is possible.

The key thing is that you get your letter to your MP by this weekend (Friday), as the vote is on the Monday.

The letter you send will need you to enter your address, the date, the name of the MP and your signature. All else is covered. The letter is attached, see document titled K Clark amendment supporters letter to MP 18 Oct 09.doc

We can win this vote on Amendment 3 to Clause 117. We – that is you, collectively – are now in control of the amendment of the Marine Bill to get it to include highly protected marine reserves as a legal entity. The other marine NGOs are no longer interested. It is therefore down to us. Katy Clark MP, our amendmend sponsor, will be contacting the MPs who signed EDM 337 and have thus called for highly protected marine reserves (225 MPs) and if you, all of you, can contact your MP and get them to vote on Monday 26th then we will have a majority.

If you have friends or family members who can contact another MP, in a neighbouring consituency or elsewhere, please send them the attached MARINET letter and get them to send it to their MP. The vote of every MP will count on 26th October.

So, here we are. Crunch-day is approaching. The campaign has swung this way and that, and many obstacles have been thrown in our path. But, if we can win the vote on Monday 26th, then we have won.

Therefore, apologies for this late twist in events, but everything is down to you now. Please send that letter.

Our sincerest thanks from the Campaign Team, and get in touch with me if you need anything.

Regards,
Stephen Eades
stephen.eades@marinereserves.org.uk

Serious students are also directed to the video of the session, where the business of the Marine Bill can be seen (start at about one third of the way through the clip).

This is not the view of MARINET, nor indeed of the Joint Committee of both Houses of Parliament when they considered the draft legislation last summer.

MARINET believes that if a specific power to create highly protected marine reserves is not written into the Bill, then there will be a retreat from this committment by future Governments as economic and social interests argue that such a restrictive provision (no extractive activity) would prejudice their freedom. Thus, the conservation of the sea, its habitats and biodiversity, will continue to remain subordinate to economic and social interests (e.g. fishing, mineral extraction and other commercial activities).

An amendment to include highly protected marine reserves was introduced was tabled at the Report Stage in the House of Lords on 12th May 2009 by the Liberal Democrats with crossbench support, but it was not supported by the Conservatives who, like the Government, argued that to write the provision for highly protected marine conservation zones (MCZs) into the Bill was “unnecessary” and thus the amendment failed to secure enough support and so was not pressed to a vote by the Liberal Democrats.

MARINET has argued for six key amendments to the Marine Bill. These are:

1. The need for highly protected marine reserves to be written into the legislation.
2. The need for the selection of marine reserves (marine conservation zones) to be based primarily on scientific criteria, with social and economic factors taking a subordinate role in this process. At present the legislation does not specify the primacy of scientific criteria in the selection process, and the Government and the other political parties have refused to support this amendment
3. The legislation recognises that marine reserves will need constitute a network, but the legislation does not specify that this network should be “ecologically coherent”, so an amendment to this effect is required.  This amendment has been supported by the Conservativs and Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords, and the Government has been forced to concede that an amendment is required.  This amendment will be tabled (precise wording presently unknown) at the Third Reading of the Bill in the House of Lords on 8th June.
4. The marine reserves network must be sufficiently large in order to ensure that UK seas are managed sustainably (i.e. balance conservation, soical and economic interests).  The Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution recommended in 2004 that at least 30% of UK seas should become highly protected marine reserves, but MARINET has found that no politcal party in the present UK Parliament will support this recommendation.  MARINET has therefore had to desist from advocating this specific objective, and has instead argued that the Bill should be amended so “that the network [of marine reserves] is sufficiently extensive to enable economic and social uses of the sea to be environmentally sustainable“. No political group in the House of Lords has supported this amendment.
5. The marine reserves network should be established in an intial ecologically coherent form by the 2012.  Currently the legislation gives not date by which the network of marine reserves should be established, so MARINET has asked for the Bill to include this amendment which corresponds with the UK legal commits under OSPAR and the World Summit on Sustainable Development. The Government said it would meet its international legal obligations, but wanted no dates to be included in the legislation. No other politcal party in the House of Lords fely compelled to table this amendment.  Thus the date for the ecologically coherent network of marine reserves, either in an initial or a comprehensive form, remains undefined by the Marine Bill.

The other key purpose that MARINET has argued that the Marine Bill must serve is to rebuild our commercial fish stocks. At present, 88% of commercial fish stocks in EU seas are being exploited beyond their maximum sustaianble yield and 30% are being exploited beyong their safe biological limit. These are the latest figures from the European Commission. This over-exploitation of our fisheries makes new management practices both essential and urgent, but the UK Government insists that the UK Marine Bill is not the place to address this issue.  it argues that such reform can only come from the European commission via the CFP.  However, as MARINET has pointed out to the UK Government, powers to prohibit fishing in spawning nursery and other key marine areas of biodiversity already exist under the CFP and the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive which is now operative gives the UK conservation powers to recommend the cessation of fishing in areas of UK seas out to 200 nautical miles when conservation imperatives require. Such imperatives are the maintenance of commercial fish stocks in a sound condition along with marine food chains (see Annex 1 of the MSFD).

MARINET has explained these facts to the UK Government and the political parties in the House of Lords during their consideration of the Marine Bill (see Briefing Paper, titled Briefing on UK Legal Powers to create Marine Reserves). However, at the present time, no politician in the UK Parliament is prepared to act on this matter and no political party believes that the UK Marine Bill should address this issue.

It is MARINET’s view that the UK Marine Bill can and must address the issue of the sustainabilty and re-building of the commercial fish stocks in UK seas, and that the UK Parliament has the necessary sovereign powers to do this in the UK Marine Bill.

The following week, The Observer published a number of letters in response, including one from the Fisheries Minister, Huw Irranca-Davies, and another from the Marine Reserves campaign’s very own Malcolm Hunter.

• The High Level Marine Objectives take forward the UK vision for the marine environment of “clean, healthy, safe, productive and biologically diverse oceans and seas.”
• They set out the outcomes that all UK Administrations are seeking to achieve in the UK marine area, as well as providing a vision of what success will look like.
• They will steer the development of policies to achieve sustainable development in the marine area and, more widely, will help inform and educate the public, business and voluntary sectors
• They will be used to underpin the development the joint Marine Policy Statement, which is provided for in the Marine and Coastal Access Bill
• UK Administrations will be working together to develop the Marine Policy Statement, which is expected to be completed in 2011

Developing Scenarios for a Network of Marine Protected Areas

Question 1:  have you sought legal advice on the ability of the Government to set up an ecologically coherent network of Highly Protected Marine Reserves (HPMRs) in the UK Exclusive Economic Zone in order to secure the economic recovery of the seas in our jurisdiction

The UK has one of the richest marine environments in the world and one of the Government’s key goals for the future is to bring conservation standards in the marine environment up to those that exist on land. It is important that we develop a strong network of marine protected areas to conserve the richness of our marine wildlife.

We already have 156 protected sites with marine features in the UK, which includes 76 Special Protections Areas with marine habitats for birds, 77 Special Areas of Conservation with marine habitats or species, and 3 statutory marine nature reserves.

The Government’s intention is to establish an ecologically coherent network of marine protected areas (MPAs) for the purposes of furthering biodiversity, with the aim of meeting our vision of clean, healthy, safe, productive and biologically diverse seas. This network will primarily consist of Marine Conservation Zones, as proposed under the Marine and Coastal Access Bill, and European marine sites (Special Areas of Conservation and Special Protection Areas) as required under the EC Habitats Directive. Officials are currently drafting a document describing our strategy for achieve this aim across English and UK offshore waters, which we intend to consult on in the near future.

It is not our intention to establish Highly Protected Marine Reserves, which presume a minimum level of protection and control which does not take in to account the individual characteristics of the site in question.

Instead, The Marine Conservation Zone (MCZ) mechanism will provide a flexible tool which allows for the designation of a full range of sites from areas of limited protection to areas of very high protection. All designated MCZs will be given appropriate levels of protection according to the needs of the site. Where an adequate case is made for the application of strict protective measures, and the site meets the necessary criteria and passes the relevant tests, appropriate measures will be applied. We do expect that some MCZs will need to be highly protected sites.

Having a separate mechanism to specifically designate HPMRs would create confusion for stakeholders, greater legal complexity and increased bureaucracy, without providing any additional conservation benefits.

There has been much discussion about the proportion of the sea that might need to be designated as part of the network of marine protected areas. Experts have suggested different figures based on different assumptions and criteria. We do not propose to include a prescribed target on the face of the Bill because we will only know what proportion of the sea needs protection after having carried out more detailed work with stakeholders. The Joint Committee of both Houses of Parliament endorsed this approach.

The MPA network will be established for the benefit of biodiversity. We will be able to take account of socioeconomic impacts when selecting and managing MCZs. There may be some consequential benefits for marine industries (e.g. fish stocks may improve as a result of closed areas, wildlife tourism could benefit from recovering areas) but these will not be the purpose of designating sites.

Question 2: how do you intend to meet our obligations under the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (May 2008) to achieve good environmental status throughout the UK seas by 2020 without the use of an ecologically coherent set of HPMRs covering 30% of our seas, as recommended by the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution in 2004?

Work to both transpose and implement the requirements of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) is well underway. The Directive requires Member States to prepare a Marine Strategy for their waters with the aim of achieving good environmental status by 2020. The first component of this strategy is the preparation of an Initial Assessment of UK waters due in July 2012. The UK has a well developed monitoring and assessment programme for the marine environment that is delivered through the United Kingdom Marine Monitoring and Assessment Strategy (UKMMAS). UKMMAS is currently focused on the production of Charting Progress 2, the second Integrated Assessment of the State of UK Seas report and will review the evidence currently available to show how well the UK is meeting the Government’s vision for clean, safe, healthy, productive and biologically diverse oceans and seas. Charting Progress 2 is due to be published in 2010 and will provide the basis for the initial assessment, which shall include an analysis of the essential features and characteristics and current environmental status of our waters based on lists of chemical, physical and biological features, habitat types and hydro-morphology.

The next element of the Marine Strategy is the determination of Good Environmental Status (GES) and establishment of environmental targets and associated indicators by 2012. The advice and guidance of experts will be crucial in developing targets and indicators and proposals are being developed to ensure that expert advice will be available during this process. The next stage will focus on establishment and implementation of the monitoring programme for GES which needs to be In place by 2014. The final component of the Marine Strategy will be the programme of measures which will set out the action required in order to achieve or maintain GES. These will be devised taking account of the environmental targets and the initial assessment, which will form the baseline for measuring progress. This work will be coordinated/led by the relevant competent authorities for the Directive. The directive refers to the creation of Marine Protected Areas as an important contribution to the achievement of GES. It is within this programme of measures that the creation of Marine Conservation Zones (MCZs) will contribute to ensuring that the UK successfully meets the objective of reaching GES by 2020.

Greenland whale death flurry 1883 - Image courtesy of York University

House of Lords Day 8

This long and fascinating exchange saw the climax of the arguments on the Government’s approach to conservation of our collapsing marine ecosystem. The opposition tried everything: reason, rhetoric and even tried to pull old Labour heartstrings with historical references to the high ideals of the post war reforming Labour government.

All to no avail.

This Bill is a framework bill – save your soppy conservation sentiment for secondary legislation.  At least for now.

Ministers are reneging on promises to safeguard vital wildlife areas around Britain’s coasts from destruction through “world-leading” legislation, The Independent on Sunday can reveal.

They have diluted plans to set up highly protected areas where dredging and drilling are banned in the Marine Bill that is working its way through Parliament.

Many Peers remain dissatisfied with the Government ministers’ undertakings about safeguarding the seas.