The European Commission (EC) recently launched a proposal
focused on marine spatial planning, primarily to support the growth of a
sustainable blue economy across Europe .
One of the main aims of the proposal is environmental
protection, and it is hoped that such legislation, if ratified by the EU
Council, would reinforce both the Marine Strategy Framework Directive and
Habitats Directive. Both of which aim to promote conservation of habitats and
ecosystems (i.e. foundations of the Green Economy).
If marine spatial planning is to succeed in protecting the
environment, good quality biological evidence must be a fundamental cornerstone
in decision processes. Specifically, it is the analyses of marine biological
habitats and associated species to form habitat / biotope maps which are
required.
Photo: jonkriz (Flickr Photostream)
Within the UK ,
the Marine Management Organisation has completed such a planning exercise for
the East of England. They have published some useful documentation around the
processes they used. One document makes recommendations they concluded from
using habitat / biotope maps (http://www.marinemanagement.org.uk/evidence/1014.htm).
Our team have experience helping organisations, from
gathering and analysing data to providing marine biological planning inputs.
Please get in touch with us (software@thomsonecology.com) to
find out if we can help your organisation.
Sources:
No comments:
Post a Comment