Revisiting UK Marine Protected Areas governance: A case study of a collaborative approach to managing an English MPA

Abstract

Case studies of Marine Protected Area (MPA) upscaling were solicited from participants of a workshop at the International Marine Protected Areas Conference held in Autumn 2013 in Marseille. One such case study was Solandt, Jones, Duval-Diop, Kleiven, and Frangoudes (2014; Governance challenges in scaling up from individual MPAs to MPA networks. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems, 24, 145–152) which illustrated the role of science, non-governmental organizations, government and local regulators in applying systemic management measures for local MPAs based on risk, highlighting the importance of balancing top-down and bottom-up drivers. Here we follow up on the UK example, illustrating the incentives and actors involved in developing centralized and subsequent fisheries management measures in UK waters. Forty local laws were created to protect features in 143 inshore MPAs between 2013 and 2019. We illustrate best practice in delivering management, focusing on multiple practitioner involvement in a single MPA and the monitoring put in place after trawling and dredging were banned. We reflect on how the governance mechanisms in place in English inshore waters can be used as a template to allow for progressive MPA management in other coastal states.