What is a CMZ

What is a Marine Conservation Area?

As part of new law called the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009, it has been the responsibility of the organisation Finding Sanctuary to suggest areas to government (DEFRA) for environmental protection along the South West coastline. These proposed areas for marine protection are known as; Marine Conservation Zones (MCZ).

There are different levels of environmental protection applied to Marine Conservation Zones, the highest level of protection relates to Reference Sites. If a site is designated a Reference Site, the advisors to the government, (JNCC and Natural England) have recommended that the following activities will be incompatible with the reference site designation.

Table 1: This is a list of activities considered extractive, depositional, damaging or disturbing by Natural England and JNCC. Activities listed extractive and depositional are considered incompatible with a Reference Area.

(source:http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/Images/MCZ-regional-guidance_tcm6-23451.pdf).

Are there proposed Marine Conservation Zones in the Falmouth Area?

Finding Sanctuary submitted their final report and final suggestions for potential Marine Conservation Zones to Government on September 7th 2011. Locally, Finding Sanctuary suggested three areas for environmental protection as seen in Figure 1 (Swanpool,The Fal and The Manacles). For further information about these designations and others across the region please view Finding Sanctuary’s Final Recommendations Full Report.

Figure 1: This map is taken from the Finding Sanctuary Final Report and shows the three local sites proposed as Marine Conservation Zones. The Fal and Swanpool sites are proposed as Reference areas (seen in orange in the below) and The Manacles site as a Marine Conservation Zone (seen in black in the below).

How does this affect you?

The proposed Fal Reference Area will have the very highest level of environmental protection as will Swanpool Reference Area. Please refer to Table 1 for activities considered incompatible in a Reference Area.

What can you do?

The public consultation for MCZ’s opens Summer 2012 however, prior to this there is an Impact Assessment (please refer to Table 2 for a timetable of events). According to the legislation, all MCZ’s should take into account the impacts of any designation not only to the environment but also to society and the economy. Falmouth Harbour Commissioners feel it is important for any individual, group, organisation or sector that feel the designation of these sites will impact them socially or economically, to outline their concerns to DEFRA prior to January 2012.

The proposed Fal Reference site is within Falmouth Harbour Commissioners Port limits, please refer to Figure 2. This is a busy and important area for port and harbour users. The Commissioners would like to encourage all harbour users to take an active interest in this issue, making your thoughts known to DEFRA and raise awareness of these MCZ recommendations to others these proposals will affect.

Figure 2: This image is taken from the Finding Sanctuary Final Report and shows the location of the Fal Reference Site, defined by the orange boundary below.

Table 2: DEFRA’s Timetable for delivery as per their website

31 August 2011	Regional Projects submit final MCZ recommendations.
September/October 2011	SAP review the Regional Project recommendations
16 January 2012	Impact Assessment completed. SNCB statutory advice submitted to Government.
Summer 2012	Public consultation on sites the Government proposes to designate in 2012.
December 2012	Designation of MCZs.

For specific further information about the Fal Reference Site, please view the Finding Sanctuary Final Report, specifically pages 1031 -1041, written by Finding Sanctuary.