Publication - Impact assessment
Sea of Hebrides Marine Protected Area: business and regulatory impact assessment
An assessment of the business and regulatory impacts of designating the Sea of Hebrides Marine Protected Area.
Annex A: Summary of Ecosystem Benefits that can be derived from designation of Sea of Hebrides MPA
| Services | Relevance to Site |
On-site / Off-site |
Baseline Level | Estimated Impacts of Management | Value Weighting | Scale of Benefits | Confidence | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lower | Intermediate | Upper | |||||||
| Fish and shellfish for human consumption | Moderate, benthic habitat and sandeels contribute to the food web | On-site and off-site | Stocks not at MSY | Nil | Minimal, small recovery of fish stocks possible | Moderate, sandeels are import in food webs for commercial species and priority wildlife species | Minimal | Moderate | |
| Fish and shellfish for non-human consumption | Stocks reduced from potential maximum | ||||||||
| Climate regulation | Moderate, in coastal areas | On-site | Function of carbonate production areas may decline | Minimal | Minimal–Low, from prevention of damage to carbonate production areas | Moderate | Nil | High | |
| Waste breakdown/ detoxification | Moderate, some biogenic benthic features (e.g. sea fans) provide this service | On-site and off-site | Low | Minimal | Low, water quality in this area not affecting human welfare | Nil | High | ||
| Non-use value of natural environment | Moderate, Basking shark, Minke whale and sandeels, and contribution of the site to MPA network, have non-use value | On-site | Non-use value of the site may decline | Moderate – Low, protection of features of site from potential future decline, but parts of site already protected | Moderate, protection of features is valued by divers & anglers (Kenter et al. 2013). | Moderate | Moderate, extent of features, responses to management scenarios, and value to society all uncertain | ||
| Low, recovery of features possible | |||||||||
| Recreation | Moderate, wildlife tourism and recreation at site, including angling (Kenter et al. 2013) | On-site | Recreation value of the site may decline | Minimal, protection of features of site | Low, protection of features of site that contribute to recreation, allowing some recovery | Moderate – High, recreation and tourism support jobs, and are valued (Kenter et al. 2013). | Low – Moderate | Low – Moderate, extent of change from management scenarios uncertain. | |
| Research and Education | Moderate, small number of biological features have research value, but there are substitutes | On-site | Value of site may decline | Minimal, protection of features of site | Low, protection of key characteristics of site from decline, improving future research opportunities. | Low, for individual features. Moderate for opportunity to understand response of range of features to management. | Low | Low – Moderate, extent to which research uses site in future uncertain. | |
| Designation may play role in communicating management needs. | |||||||||
| Total value of changes in ecosystem services | Value of site may decline | Minimal for lower scenario, Low for intermediate and upper scenario, designation has Moderate–Low non-use value to protecting site from future decline (Kenter et al. 2013) | Low – Moderate | Moderate | |||||
| Total value of changes in ecosystem services | Low – Moderate | Moderate | |||||||
Contact
Email: marine_conservation@gov.scot
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