Supporting the development of marine protected area management plans based on fundamental science

The UK has an extensive network of marine protected areas (MPAs) and they form a fundamental part of the UK marine conservation and management strategy. The Marine Management Organisation (MMO) is responsible for the 77 English Marine protected areas. Of these, less than a third currently have a management plan. Management plans have been shown to be essential for effective MPA implementation; without them MPAs are less likely to meet their objectives. Lack of management plans for the UK Natura sites, a network of European protected areas, has led to the UK facing possible infraction charges from Europe for being in breach of our duties under the Habitats Directive, which could result in substantial fines. Thus there is a need for the MMO to develop a large number of robust MPA management plans, quickly. MPA management plans can have substantial consequences, not just for the marine environment they are designed to protect, but also for the coastal communities that depend on marine resources. Both ecological and socio-economic impacts must be considered alongside resourcing, feasibility, existing management provisions and the plethora of policy and legislation associated with UK MPAs. Just like the designation of MPAs, it is essential that the development of management plans is strategic, holistic, and uses the best available science.

The overarching aim of this three year project is to support the development of marine protected area management plans, underpinned by cutting edge science. The project will work in close conjunction with the marine management community (MMO, DEFRA, JNCC, CEFAS and Natural England) and outputs will be tailored to maximise their utility to the ongoing work of the MMO. The project will entail a series of strategic literature reviews and an estimated nine workshops. Workshops will be attended by both members of the marine management community and researchers, and they will focus on either filling gaps in the knowledge or developing decision support tools. In years one and two, the project will develop and populate a database on English MPAs, including the features they are designated for and the socio-economics of the coastal community's local to them. The project will also develop a classification scheme, in conjunction with the MMO, which will be used to categorise the strength of evidence contained within that database. In the third year, two workshops will be held to develop a matrix of different MPA management options. Finally, over two further workshops, a decision support framework for MPA management plans will be developed and trialled. This project will involve reviewing both completed and ongoing research and will be supported by a range of academics, including: Professor Callum Roberts, Dr Jan Hiddink, Professor Simon Jennings and Professor Hugh Possingham.

The project also aims to contribute to future NERC-MMO partnerships activities. Part of this project will involve feeding back to researchers about how they can tailor their research outputs and plan future projects to increase their utility for informing marine protected area management decisions, and hence how they can increase the impact of their work. This part of the project will undertaken in collaboration with Dr Abigail McQuatters-Gallop at University of Plymouth, who is a current NERC KE Fellow undertaking a related project KE project.

This project will advance the uptake of science into marine management decisions by improving availability of evidence and by providing a framework to support the incorporation of that evidence into governance. In doing so, it will contribute to increasing the impact of associated academic research. The outputs of this project will aid decision makers to simultaneously consider the complex marine environment, the diverse range of stakeholders that use it, the plethora of both national and international policy and legislation, and the realities of resource availability.