Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAs): consultation analysis - final report

Footnotes

1. Note that this 12-group classification was simplified to an 8-group classification for the purpose of analysis.

2. The MPA network comprises a combination of officially designated Nature Conservation Marine Protection Areas (NC MPAs), Special Areas of Conservation (SACs), Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs), historic sites, sites for demonstration and research, and Ramsar Sites. Ramsar Sites are rare or unique wetlands of international importance. Ramsar Sites are named for the Ramsar Convention (adopted in Ramsar, Iran in February 1971).

3. The Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) is a public body that advises the UK Government and devolved administrations on UK-wide and international nature conservation.

4. Note that Annex 1 is provided as a separate document.

5. See Annex 5 for further details about respondents’ views on the consultation and consultation process.

6. This includes the response from one organisation that contacted the Scottish Government to ask for their duplicate response to be removed. In some cases, the respondent submitted a duplicate response – one by email and one through Citizen Space – or they sent (by email) follow-up material to their Citizen Space response. In other cases, the respondent submitted two different responses. (In two cases, the respondent submitted three responses.)

7. Examples included a message requesting a Word version of the consultation questionnaire; a message acknowledging receipt of information about the consultation; a request for information about whether HPMAs already exist in Scotland and who the Scottish Government’s partners in this initiative are; a request for information about the exact closing date / time of the consultation.

8. Where the respondent submitted multiple different responses, if their answers to the closed questions differed across their responses, the latter response was retained and comments from their earlier response were copied into that.

9. This figure represents the final number of responses after blank responses, duplicates, etc. were removed from the analysis – see Chapter 2.

10. For an explanation of how the percentages in this section were calculated, see Table A1.3 in Annex 1.

11. It is not clear from the response(s) which international commitments are referred to here, but it could be the Kunming-Montreal Agreement from Dec 2022 (COP15: Final text of Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework | Convention on Biological Diversity (cbd.int). Document reference CBD/COP/15/L25. See https://www.cbd.int/article/cop15-final-text-kunming-montreal-gbf-221222 for further details.

12. MLWS: Mean Low Water Springs, the average throughout a year of the heights of two successive low waters during those periods of 24 hours (approximately once a fortnight) when the range of the tide is greatest.

13. See Table A1.39 in Annex 1 for a full breakdown of the responses to Question 15.

14. See Table A1.41 in Annex 1 for a full breakdown of the responses to Question 17.

15. Scottish Environment LINK is the forum for Scotland’s voluntary environment community, with over 40 member bodies representing a broad spectrum of environmental interests with the common goal of contributing to a more environmentally sustainable society.

16. MLWS: Mean Low Water Springs, the average throughout a year of the heights of two successive low waters during those periods of 24 hours (approximately once a fortnight) when the range of the tide is greatest.

17. MLWS: Mean low water springs