Futures Analysis for the Remaining Marine Plan Areas

Description

Marine plans will present objectives and policies for all marine plan areas; currently marine plans are being developed for the North East, North West, South East and South West marine plan areas. Marine plans, once adopted, last for 20 years and therefore need to be able to anticipate changes in activity over that timescale. In developing marine plans, the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) must ensure that all sectors are managed fairly and proportionately to enable sustainable development. The English marine plan areas are one of the busiest marine areas in Europe and the level of activity is likely to increase significantly over the next few years. This includes the introduction of new sectors such as tidal energy. Evidence on the nature and scale of the potential future development of each sector is required to ensure that their needs are fully understood and consideration of potential conflicts and complementarities are incorporated appropriately into marine plans. The MMO are commissioning this project to review likely changes in activity levels of marine sectors in the North East, North West, South East and South West marine plan areas over the next 6 and 20 years. The review will consider information on historical trends for the last 10 to 20 years, industry projections (where available) and potentially significant future changes such as technological advances, changes in ecosystems and policy directions

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