Regional Marine Cooperation

Membership of the European Union seems to be a perennially hot topic. The global recession and the Eurozone crisis has exposed the underlying tensions between the sovereignty of the state and the compromises inherent in international cooperation. In the UK the focus has recently been on the governance of the EU – how the President of the European Commission is selected – but this masks fundamental disagreements about the relationship between the Commission and its member states.

In all this political circus we can loose sight of some of the great achievements of the EU, achievements which point to the need for continued European cooperation. You wont be surprised to hear that I am referring to environmental legislation. Whilst Directives such as the Water Framework Directive or the Habitats Directive are much maligned, there is no doubt that they have been strong drivers for improvements in environmental governance, and for improved environmental quality.

The logic behind the development of environmental legislation at European level is twofold:

first, nature does not adhere to administrative boundaries and so impacts created in one region can affect another, and second,

controls on activities to protect the environment do have a cost to society and the economy, and so it is important to have a level playing field if the European common market is to function effectively. Disparities in these external costs would tend to distort the market by making more effectively regulated regions less competitive.

The regulation of the seas around Europe is a prime example of the need for cooperation. The EU has taken steps to put in place an appropriate legal framework, but as ever there are tensions with economic development and in the roles of member states. The task is only recently begun and there remains much to do. The European Commission staged a high level conference in March to consider progress to date.

Now, the House of Lords EU Sub-Committee on Agriculture, Fisheries, Environment and Energy has launched an inquiry to consider the matter of Regional Marine Cooperation and is calling for evidence. However we may feel about the effectiveness of the governance of the EU, here is a chance to voice our own opinions and so contribute to this important debate. Don’t miss the opportunity!

Written submissions are requested by Friday 26th September 2014.

Marine planning – is it worth all the effort?

Marine planning in England represents a whole new institution: dedicated staff, new systems and procedures, a significant research programme, and a new organisation to host it. “Is it all worth it?” is an important question at any time, but particularly in this climate of austerity.

In fact, it’s also a very complicated question to answer, and one that I addressed earlier this year in contributing to a report for the Marine Management Organisation (led by Plymouth Marine Lab) on social impacts of marine planning. The report has now been published and can be viewed here.

The essential challenge is one of how to measure the impacts of the implementation of marine plans. So, for example, what are the benefits to society of a new wind farm? We can anticipate a flow of energy, construction jobs, maintenance jobs, company profits and so on. We can also anticipate some dis-benefits, such as damage to natural habitats. It is possible (albeit with many complications) to measure all of these things and to weigh up the pros and cons. Not easy, but possible.

What’s really difficult however, and this is where the complexity of the question is really manifest, is to identify what proportion of the benefit is actually due to marine planning. Just think about it for a moment.

Wind farm construction and operation, and lots of other activities, have been taking place in the absence of marine planning and we must ask what is the added value of the marine plan in setting policies for zoning (i.e. for mitigating conflicts over the use of marine space to be a little more technical about it). Amongst many other things, the report refers to some interesting work in the USA, looking at trade-offs between conflicting activities and at what techniques could be used to calculate the sum of their benefit, which provides some pointers as to how to approach the issue.

And if that sounds taxing, just consider for a moment (just for a moment – any longer and you’ll get a headache) how to measure the added value of marine plans to the provision of ecosystem services to people living in a coastal town. This requires an understanding of social trends and pressures; the contribution of tourism; how all this is affected by the presence of marine ecosystems services such as a beach, waves and sea air; and how much marine plan policies affect these services.

That thought may well have put you off! – but if your appetite has been whetted take a look at the report…….and given the time of year consider having a hot toddy in hand to stiffen your resolve!

 

A Perfect Storm

Today is a ‘Big News Day’. The Autumn Statement from the UK government has been much anticipated. Many different interest groups will be looking at the detail to see whether they will be better or worse off. Its all relative of course: since the coalition Government took office in 2010 the size of the public sector has decreased enormously, apparently down to levels not seen since WWII according to the Office of Budget Responsibility.

It’s also a Big News Day as yet another big storm unfolds in Scotland and the North of England and Wales, and threatens a storm surge along the east coast as high spring tides coincide with strong northerly winds: essentially pushing a huge body of water down the North Sea into its narrower southern half. Even as I write people are being evacuated from their homes in Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk.

As the public finances shrink so there is less money available for the maintenance and strengthening of coastal flood defences. Traditionally the bulk of this cost has been met by central government. However, in response to the ‘austerity agenda’ the government has amended policy to effectively require local contributions. In all but the most urgent of cases these will be substantial sums.

However, as local government budgets are cut and local businesses continue to struggle as the recession and its immediate effects linger far longer than we could have expected, it is difficult to see where these local contributions will come from.

Despite the good news today from the Chancellor, George Osborne, about the better than expected growth forecasts it is likely to be some years yet before the funds available for coastal defences recover to pre-recession levels. In practice this means elevated levels of risk for those living in vulnerable coastal towns and villages on days like today when nature threatens to strike with full force.

Find out more about the complexities of coastal flood and erosion risk management at http://imcore.wordpress.com/partners/east-of-england/

There’s something fishy going on….

The perils of the globalisation of our food system have been paraded in the headlines recently in relation to the UK/European horse-meat scandal. And now it seems that miss-selling is rife in the case of fish as well (see BBC news report)!

The solution to this erosion of trust in food is absolutely clear: buy local. The benefits are that:

• supply chains are short and so there is less chance for produce to be ‘contaminated’ with cheap substitutes
• with short supply chains your produce will be fresher. This is particularly the case with fish
• you will help producers to get a better price for their efforts and so they are more likely to stay in business, to buy local supplies themselves, and not be forced into cheating by misrepresenting food.

I have been involved in a number of initiatives to support local food supply: in Essex the delivery of a local-seafood festival and the development of a local-seafood brand; in Devon/Cornwall the development of local food groups supported by the Tamar Valley AONB; and in Sussex the development of local marketing initiatives for seafood. And many years ago I was a local food producer myself, running a small trout farm and selling fresh and smoked fish products to local outlets.

I have learned a lot things through this work and I share some of them here in the hope that they will help someone to avoid costly mistakes and to focus on the factors that may make or break a scheme.

1. Distribution. It is really hard to get small volumes of product to multiple customers in a cost effective way, mainly because of the staff and fuel costs involved in doing so. This is where box scemes come into their own, encouraging bulk purchases and enabling highly controlled delivery options to keep costs in check. Community supported agriculture schemes can also help, by encouraging loyalty amongst customers so that delivery costs become less of a barrier to sales.

2. Critical mass. To promote local produce effectively, especially if it is to be marketed as a local ‘Brand’, you must understand the essentials of Brand management. As well as having an effective communication plan that helps to raise awareness of brand values (such as ‘fresh’ and ‘local’ for example) with sufficient marketing budget behind it, you need to have a sufficient volume of product in the market place to ensure effective brand-recognition by consumers. This is where critical mass comes in. Small volume brands for local produce, unless marketed solely through a farm shop or similar, will really struggle to deliver a return on the initial and ongoing investment in marketing that is required.

3. Managing growth. Successful marketing of local produce, whether it is formally branded or not, is likely to involve small producers working together. There will come a point as the enterprise grows where centralisation of some functions becomes cost effective, where more suppliers from further afield are needed to meet demand (adding to the carbon footprint of the operation), and perhaps even remote distribution centres…..Time to ask the question “Is this still in tune with the original vision of supplying local produce to local people?”.

Remember E.F. Schumacher, “Small is beautiful“.

Evaluation of Coastal and Marine Planning

I came across an interesting report this week from the Government’s ‘Focus on Enforcement’ team. It investigated the new arrangements for marine licencing introduced in the UK following the Marine Act’s passing into law, including the interactions of this marine regime with the terrestrial equivalent. Click here for the report.

Having been involved in the integrated coastal management scene for a good many years I was not surprised to read that although good progress is being made there are still complaints about excessive complexity and about inconsistent approaches between different organisations.

It was clear from early on that although the Marine Bill aimed to decrease complexity, many of the institutional relationships underpinning this complexity would still remain, and with the addition of a wholly new institution – the Marine Management Organisation – and a new regulatory regime in the form of marine planning.

I don’t mean appear against the changes: I was in favour of marine planning when it was first mooted as part of government’s Review of Marine Nature Conservation in the early 2000s. The lesson however, is that you can only do so much with legislation. The efficient and effective implementation of any legislation depends a great deal on institutional cultures and on the knowledge and motivation of the individual officers changed with processing and advising on applications and so on.

These individual advisors often play a pivotal role in major developments, and they hold a great deal of power. To ensure that this power is exercised judiciously requires officers with appropriate knowledge and the motivation to do their job to a high standard. I mention this because I have long argued that too little effort is put into capacity-building at individual and institutional level in support of these vital decision-making mechanisms. The lesson? People, in my view, are at least as important as Regulations and policy.

The barriers to integration of policy and practice between different institutions was highlighted by the East of England Coastal Initiative, led by the Government Office. The following link is to a video which summarises the key findings. Its me I’m afraid, but by the time the programme finished the lead officers had moved on with the dissolution of Government Offices and RDA’s following the 2010 election. Follow this link. Putting me aside, the lessons learned were fundamental to the smooth working of marine and coastal planning and consents and I would recommend they be listened to carefully. I took care to archive all the key documents of the programme on an independent website so that they remain available – click here. I would particularly draw your attention to the reports on Governance and Regeneration, and the Draft Summary. Scroll down the page to find the links to them.

Integrated coastal management may have slipped off the agenda, but the issues remain.

Blog post: Political fortunes

This week saw the Eastleigh by-election in Hampshire, which includes the popular sailing centre of Hamble, narrowly held on to by the LibDems and stimulating many column inches and broadcast hours of comment on what it means for the remainder of this Parliament and the next election.

After the 2010 General Election I remember reflecting that nearly all the MPs in coastal constituencies were Conservative, with a smattering of Lib Dems in the South and even fewer Labour incumbents in the North (mostly in the industrial towns and cities that happened to be on the coast).

Does this polarity really matter? I think perhaps it does. Sadly the outcome of the 2007 Select Committee inquiry into coastal towns, and the subsequent government response, was not sufficiently conclusive to persuade government to make any worthwhile strategic investment available (to paraphrase… ‘there is a wide diversity in the issues that they face’, and ‘no two are the same’). However, they have a strong common identity and I firmly believe that there are a small number of common issues – private rented housing being one that I have been banging on about for years – that provide the justification for a central programme of support.

Yet this goes against the ideology of the current government and its MPs – those very people who should be speaking up for their coastal constituencies. That’s not to say that they are not doing good work individually, but where is the coordinated response? Who is speaking up for the coast? If not from government then at least the coastal MPs together should be making more noise within their party and within the coalition government to ensure that these issues are understood and addressed more strategically. Collectively they could have considerable clout. Yes, we all know that money is in short supply. But with better cooperation and sharing of knowledge more could be done within existing resource limitations. It would take very little investment from government to make it happen.

Welcome!

I’ve created this blog as a place to talk freely about my work and my professional interests. I have 25 years working on coastal management, sea fisheries, marine planning, regeneration, community development, local government, and more….so you’ll find an eclectic mix of topics. I hope you enjoy it!

To start with I’ve added a page about the Coastal Communities Fund, including a map and details of all successful projects to date. See the link on the menu above.

If you want to find out more about my expertise and consultancy services, go to the ‘Advice’ tab.