Scottish Marine Region – SCF report

Throughout the Marine Bill consultation and Parliamentary consideration of the Bill there has been much interest in Scottish Marine Regions (SMRs). 

SMRs are to be defined to allow for a more localised expression of interest  in, and ownership of, marine planning and management issues. This division of the coast will provide the mechanism by which Regional Marine Plans can be delivered.  Regional Marine Plans will take national priorities into account in their
development but will be focussed on the needs and requirements of a particular area of coastline and its associated water bodies.

We would like to bring to your attention the report on Scottish Marine Regions which has been  prepared for Marine Scotland by the Scottish Coastal Forum.  The Report reflects initial stakeholder thoughts regarding potential Scottish Marine Regions (SMRs).

From the Executive Summary of the Report ::

Scotland’s first Marine Bill will provide fit-for-purpose legislation to deliver planning, development, management and stewardship  of Scotland’s coastal and marine resources. The Bill is intended to allow sustainable economic growth within environmental limits.  It will set the framework for a National Marine Plan to address national priorities within social, economic and environmental  parameters and allow for Regional Marine Plans to create a more localised sense of ownership of marine planning.  To achieve this, a number of Scottish Marine Regions are proposed.   

The Scottish Coastal Forum was asked by  the Scottish Government to carry out a short project to gauge stakeholders’ thoughts on how Scottish Marine Regions (SMRs) might be defined.  A workshop was held in Edinburgh on 13 March 2009 to generate views from an audience of largely non-Government participants that could be fed into the internal consideration of options for consultation.

Before the event, delegates were asked to identify the top 5 criteria that should be considered in the definition process and over 130 separate criteria were listed.  Pre-event analysis broke down these criteria into seven named categories:

• Physical characteristics/ecosystems  19%
• Utilisation of existing models & units  14%
• Planning for specifically marine areas & features  13%
• Appropriate scale  10%
• Secondary legislation issues  7%
• Data availability  2%
• Other suggestions  35%

At the workshop, delegates discussed these criteria further and prioritised them.  GIS was provided so they could visualise existing administrative divisions for terrestrial, marine, social, economic and environmental considerations.   This allowed the opportunity to consider whether a combination of existing boundaries might offer a ‘ready made’ division of the Scottish coastline for marine planning. 

The conclusions drawn from the workshop can be summarised as:

• Stakeholders are keen to know how local marine planning is to be delivered
• One model will not fit all cases – different options are required, and accepted as being required, for different areas
• Initial assessment of notified criteria concluded that physical characteristics / ecosystem drivers were most important for defining SMRs
• However, when all contributions were analysed, a greater number of responses suggested using existing administrative units, e.g. Inshore Fisheries Groups, as the basis for Scottish Marine Regions
  • It should be recognised that those existing groups as they are currently constituted would not be best placed to deliver marine planning but the areas they cover may be useful in setting out SMRs
• The major mainland Firths should be the focal point/basis for some Scottish Marine Regions and, if at all possible, should not be divided but should be treated as a cohesive unit
• Shetland should be a Scottish Marine Region
• It was less clear whether the Western Isles and Orkney should also be SMRs in their own right, taking advantage of the position of their local authorities, or whether they should be part of SMRs focused on the Minch and Pentland Firth respectively: this is not a straight choice between physical characteristics and administrative arrangements but has some strongly emotive issues attached
• On the day, when asked to rank the key criteria in order of importance, physical characteristics / ecosystem drivers came out on top, narrowly beating existing models and administrative units; all other potential criteria received considerably less support
• Recognised that Scottish Marine Regions should be of a size that is efficient for administration purposes but also offers local communities a sense of affinity and ownership of issues
• Number of SMRs to be somewhere between 5 and 10, with 12 as the absolute maximum; recognition that there would be a trade-off between the drivers of efficiency and affinity
• There was a significant level of support for SMR boundaries that might use a combination of the boundaries for Inshore Fisheries Groups and SEPA’s River Basin Catchment Management Plans’ Area Advisory Groups as their base; it was felt that these existing divisions give a ‘good fit’ for areas that encompass a terrestrial element along with a coastal and offshore focus, although the boundaries between the different elements was not agreed
• There was no strong push for SMRs to go out to 12nm, or even beyond 6nm: soft landward boundaries required to allow coastal communities to participate and encourage development of ICZM with terrestrial interests.

In summary, this workshop event, and the  preparation asked of  participants, was successful in gathering a wide range of opinions in a short period of time.  It was a useful starting point for work to consider Scottish Marine Regions but it should be supplemented with longer term, more sustained dialogue with key interests on an individual basis or in small groups, perhaps with a common geographic/area focus.  

A further paper on potential  recommendations and options for Scottish Marine Regions is being prepared.   The SCF and the Scottish Government are working together to use the points raised in this workshop as base material for developing suggestions on how Scottish Marine Regions might be defined.

Category: Other Organisations, SSACN Announcements