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WHY IS THE UK DRAGGING ITS FEET?
NIGEL EATON, EDITOR
The government of the UK should commit to a marine act to promote the sustainable management of its seas.
That was the message issued by the global environment network WWF before the World Summit on Sustainable Development, which was convening in Johannesburg as Diver went to press.
Part of a seven-point plan by WWF, the call comes in response to the disappointing lack of co-ordination regarding UK marine matters, which have, historically, been managed by a disparate range of local and national government bodies.
As WWF points out, marine environments are threatened on three fronts: by pollution, habitat damage and over-use of resources.
Yet UK policy is still fragmented. "Our current approach to marine management is piecemeal, with no national vision or policy on the marine environment," says WWF. "The lack of strategic framework for planning and managing our seas means that regulation falls to different sectors, where environmental considerations may be incidental. [Johannesburg] is a critical opportunity to get concerted action on the sustainable management of the marine environment around the UK and globally."
One notable example is, of course, the UK's poor record in setting up marine parks. As we reported last month in Diver News, proposals have finally been put forward for a no-take zone (NTZ) in a 3.5sq km area near the coast of Lundy, off north-west Devon - an island which has so far enjoyed only limited protection since becoming a statutory marine reserve in 1986.
We know that NTZs work. Those, for instance, around Spain's Medas Islands and New Zealand's Poor Knights have been recognised as remarkable successes - not only by divers and conservationists, but also by the tourist and fishing industries. In the USA, leading scientists are now calling for 20% of the world's oceans to be set aside as permanent biological reserves. In New Zealand a target has been set for protecting 10% of its marine environment by 2010.
It is therefore astonishing that no NTZ has been established in Lundy - or anywhere else around the UK - to date.
Whatever the outcome in Johannesburg, two things are clear. Firstly, the proposals from WWF are significant. Secondly, they (or something very like them) will, at some point, come into being.
The question is: how soon? And how many opportunities for divers and anyone else involved with the ocean world (including those who rely on it for their livelihoods) will be lost in the meantime?
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