Hansard

I welcome the opportunity to speak in this debate on our national marine plan. The plan has been drafted to be consistent with the UK marine policy statement, in which the UK Administrations share a common vision of having clean, healthy, safe, productive and biologically diverse oceans and seas.

I have a keen interest in Scotland’s national marine plan, as my region is dominated by coastal areas and includes both Arran and the Cumbraes as well as the Clyde. With that in mind, I will focus my speech on the work of the Community of Arran Seabed Trust, which is known as COAST, and relate that back to the draft national marine plan policy.

COAST was created in 1995 with the aim of working for the protection and restoration of the marine environment around Arran and the Clyde. Since then, it has become one of the UK’s leading community marine conservation organisations. It was responsible for the establishment of Scotland’s first no-take zone, in Lamlash Bay, which I have previously highlighted in the chamber, and it is now campaigning for the complete exclusion of trawlers and dredgers from the newly designated south Arran marine protected area.

COAST currently has concerns about the national marine plan. I would be grateful if the cabinet secretary addressed those concerns today. It is concerned that the views of smaller organisations and coastal communities are not being listened to. It feels that bigger groups, such as the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation, the oil and gas industry and others, have a disproportionate level of input into Marine Scotland, and it argues that Marine Scotland is far too centralised and that it needs more bottom-up initiatives and less dictation.

In COAST’s view, coastal communities get no say over the waters that surround them. How will the new local-level regional marine plans be developed to ensure that both coastal communities and smaller organisations are able to have input into them? I note that they will take account of local circumstances, but we need to ensure that people in local areas have an input.

The Rural Affairs, Climate Change and Environment Committee’s scrutiny suggests that the current draft of the marine plan fails to give sufficient guidance to local authorities on the development of regional plans and that many local authorities will not have the experience, expertise or resources to develop and implement those regional plans.

Scottish Environment LINK has also highlighted that issue. It argues:

“The emergent Marine Planning Partnerships—the mechanism by which regional marine planning is to be delivered—will require secure funding to ensure evidence-based, adaptive decision-making via stakeholder participation.”

I accept that Marine Scotland will take a lead and feed into the process in developing expertise and sharing good practice, but I wonder whether this is an ideal opportunity to get organisations such as COAST and our coastal communities involved in the process, allowing them to work with local authorities so that the regional plans can be fed into and therefore created using an evidence-based approach, which is currently not reflected throughout the draft marine plan.

In relation to a consistent evidence-based approach, Scottish Environment LINK and other stakeholders are also concerned about what constitutes good environmental status. That is highlighted in the Rural Affairs, Climate Change and Environment Committee’s scrutiny, and it points out, as I mentioned, that the plan does not contain sufficient guidance for local authorities and that the document does not provide a clear and concise set of principles that can be consistently applied.

It is not enough for the plan to have vague aspirations. We need clear and consistent policy and indicators, not only so that the regional plans can be implemented but so that they can work collaboratively. Having clear indicators would also allow us to monitor, evaluate and report on the plans, so I agree with the committee’s recommendation that the Scottish Government revisits the document with a view to streamlining the information that is provided.

We need to ensure that the draft national marine plan is robust and consistent and that it adopts a strong scientific approach. I hope that the Scottish Government will take on board the concerns that have been raised by the RACCE Committee, as well as those raised by outside stakeholders.

Finally, we need to ensure that sufficient resources and funding are made available to those who are expected to deliver regional marine plans and that the guidance on them is clear and concise so that there is no conflict between different regional plans. As we all know, the seas know no boundaries.