Elliot Morley responds to report on the state of the marine environment

Responding to English Nature's report on the state of the marine environment, published yesterday (6 November), Nature Protection Minister Elliot Morley said:

"We are grateful to English Nature for preparing this report and for their continued input into the development of a national strategy that will help to place integration, sustainability and an ecosystem-based approach at the heart of everything we do to ensure a sustainable future for the marine environment.

"We appreciate the issues faced in our marine environment, and we have already taken steps to tackle these problems, with a long-term and integrated approach."

Steps include:

• the launch of the first Marine Stewardship Report (1 May 2002), which sets out clear objectives, aiming for sustainable use and conservation of marine resources, full stakeholder participation and improved marine science and monitoring;
• Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) - over the next three years Defra and the devolved administrations will be developing strategies for implementing ICZM across the UK. The objective is to develop a framework that can guide and support sustainable coastal management at the local level.
• recognition of the state of fish stocks, and of the concerns of the fishing industry. The UK has already taken action to reduce the fishing fleet by decommissioning. Defra will engage fishing industry representatives, fisheries managers and scientists in a full debate to try to work out a way for fishing to continue without further endangering fish stocks. (See Elliot Morley's statement, 23 October 2002.)
• Working with the grain of nature: A Biodiversity Strategy for England (24 October 2002) contains a substantial chapter on biodiversity in the coasts and seas, and a programme of action over the next five years.
• taking appropriate action to meet the requirements of the Nitrates and Urban Waste Water Treatment Directives and reduce nutrient levels in inland and coastal waters. Direct inputs of nitrates into marine waters have been reduced by 30 percent.

See the English Nature website.

 

This page was last updated on 07 November 2002

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