Marine stewardship
Seas that are ‘clean, healthy, safe,
productive and biologically diverse’. That was the vision behind
the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ (DEFRA)
Marine Stewardship Process.
The process included a series of reports which looked at a
strategy for managing UK seas and a consultation on how this should
be delivered. It also included an assessment of the health of
UK seas and committed the UK and Welsh Assembly governments to
use the 'Ecosystem approach' as a means of managing the
marine environment.
This initiative came hot on the heels of the Review of Marine
Nature Conservation, established by DEFRA in 1999. Its brief was to
examine how effective the UK’s system is for protecting nature
conservation in the marine environment, and to make proposals for
improvements.
DEFRA is now developing a Marine Bill that aims to address
the shortcomings identified through these processes.
Benefits for Wales
CCW has worked with these initiatives to make sure that new
policies will benefit the Welsh maritime environment. This work
supports the aim, set out in the Environment Strategy for Wales,
for a marine environment that is ‘valued by all, understood and
respected for what it contains and provides’.