Marine Protected Area Network - 2018 Report to the Scottish Parliament

Purpose of report

This aim of the document is to report to Parliament on progress being made in implementing a Marine Protected Area (MPA) network. This report is a requirement of Section 103 of the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 and Section 124 of the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009. The MPA network supports the Scottish Government's vision of clean, healthy, safe, productive, biologically diverse marine & coastal environment, managed to meet the long-term needs of nature and people.

In addition Other Area Based Measures which contribute to the conservation of our seas are also included. These areas contribute to the spatial protection measures that meet the obligations of the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive.

The previous report to Parliament in 2012 is available at: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/marine/marine-environment/mpanetwork/MPAParliamentReport

This report does not consider socio-economic effects, or any analysis of compliance with management measures. This was considered separately in 2016 by another report. See https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-marine-protected-areas-socioeconomic-monitoring/ for details. A further analysis of this nature will be undertaken in 2019.