Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
nated.Thisadvicewouldbefollowedbyapublicconsultationtoallowthegeneralpublicto
comment on the proposals. However, the government recognized the valuable knowledge
and experience sea users and interest groups have of the marine environment, and judged
it to be important to consider the social and economic impacts that MCZs might have. It
therefore included, in the Marine and Coastal Access Act, provision for stakeholders to be
involved in making the initial recommendations for MCZs. These regional MCZ projects
worked with sea users and interest groups to identify MCZs within their regions (cf. JNCC,
MCZs. These recommendations came from groups of sea users and those with an interest
in the sea through a series of discussions and negotiations. Natural England and JNCC,
as the government's advisers on the natural environment, reviewed these recommendations
and submitted advice to government on the science behind these recommendations and the
quality of the ecological data. Although this project does not explicitly state it is using the
ecosystem approach, by linking socio-economic and cultural aspects with scientific analys-
is, the final result will be exactly that .
