PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
Ireland has one of the largest maritime territories in Europe covering an area of around 500 000km2. The vast size of Ireland’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and the relatively low levels of human activity in many places make it a vital repository for biodiversity but it also results in major challenges to effective conservation and management. In Ireland the process of designating Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) has been slow with only 8% areal coverage currently designated under the Birds and Habitats Directives. Government’s stated aim is to designate 30% MPA coverage by 2030, in line with the Biodiversity 2030 strategy. To achieve this coverage, the project is targeting Ireland’s Marine Strategy, through the Marine Protected Areas Bill, which is the legal mandate for establishment of spatial protection measures in Ireland.
Given the large size and relatively healthy status of its maritime area, Ireland has a particular responsibility and faces challenges for the conservation of biodiversity within Europe through the implementation of MPAs. Major challenges include specific gaps in designation, monitoring, management and enforcement.
Many of the measures specified for the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) programme of measures are high level and do not act directly on the marine environmental pressures, similarly many of the measures identified in the Prioritised Action Framework (PAF21) lack concrete detail. The project will develop feasible, concrete and location specific measures acting directly on pressures for inclusion in the MSFD programme of measures. These measures will be co-designed by stakeholders to ensure that they are feasible and appropriate, and will include conservation, protection and restoration measures focussed on the pressures most relevant in the context of a given area.
MPA-LIFE IRELAND goes beyond the statutory requirements of the MSFD and the Nature Directives to embrace the ambition of the Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 and the European Green Deal. It will reinforce protection and conservation in existing MPAs and support identification, designation and management of new MPAs that will include threatened and endangered species beyond the scope of the Nature Directives and include ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration that will enhance resilience to climate change.
The project will operate in three phases: capacity building, co-development of the MPA network, and co-delivery of ecosystem-based management (EBM).
OBJECTIVES
The overall aim of MPA-LIFE-IRELAND is to achieve and maintain Good Environmental Status in Irelands Marine Area by expanding and greatly improve Ireland’s network of MPAs to reach a minimum of 30% coverage of the Maritime Area by 2030, delivering a network of objective-driven, well-managed, monitored and enforced MPAs, including OECMs (Other Effective area-based Conservation Measures). This will be achieved through a participatory EBM process involving the co-design, co-production and co-delivery of outcomes in close collaboration with marine stakeholder and citizens.
MPA-LIFE-IRELAND will work at a national scale with all competent authorities and with society at large to deliver full implementation of Ireland’s Marine Strategy and resulting in the 30% targets of the National Biodiversity Action Plans (2017-2021 and 2022-2026) being achieved. Sites specific, pressure focussed complementary measures will be incorporated into the MSFD Programme of Measures and will contribute to full implementation of the Marine Strategy to overcome administrative, financial, structural and other barriers. The main overall aim of MPA-LIFE-IRELAND will be achieved through a series of specific sub-objectives with associated Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound (SMART) targets.
Delivery of the Marine Strategy will be through a series of logical steps:
- Initial Assessment – identification of sensitive areas potentially suitable for designation as MPAs.
- Determination of Good Environmental Status (GES) – providing the evidence base to make the assessment and fill current gaps.
- Establishment of Environmental Targets – strategic priorities for policy focus and internation dimension contributing to the development of an Ocean Environment Policy statement – establishing criteria and overarching policy content.
- Implementation of monitoring programmes – engaging with local stakeholders to develop and implement management plans, including monitoring.
- Programme of measures – engaging with local stakeholders to develop programmes of measures which are cost effective and targeted.
Sub-objectives are:
- To generate the environmental, social and economic evidence base and designation methodology.
- To co-create a modern and effective MPA process aligned with Global European and national processes, as well as international standards and best practices.
- To co-develop and co-deliver national and local implementation of the MSFD through MPA and EBM processes.
- To enable transparency and openness through effective data management and open access regimes.
- To promote Ocean Literacy through dedicated online and traditional media campaigns.
- To mobilise complementary funding from national and EU sources.
- To ensure sustainability, replication and exploitation.
RESULTS
MPA-LIFE-IRELAND aims at the full implementation of Ireland’s Marine Strategy and the 30% targets of the National Biodiversity Action Plans (2017-2021 and 2022-2026), including the complementary measures needed to achieve full implementation. This includes removal of all remaining administrative, financial, structural and other barriers for its implementation. Specifically, MPA-LIFE-IRELAND will identify and implement bespoke measures tailored to the local needs and co-designed with multi-actor participation.
The main outputs enabled through the MPA-LIFE-IRELAND project will be:
- The co-design of a coherent, modern and comprehensive network of Irish MPAs, expanding the area of marine protection in Ireland’s maritime territory from approximately 40 567km2 (8%) to 146 628km2 (30%). The expanded area of protection, conservation and restoration will include all the marine habitats and species covered by the Nature Directives, introducing measures, where necessary, to reach favourable conservation status. The project will also expand the scope of environmental protection to include species (e.g. Basking sharks, Thornback rays) and habitats (e.g. native oyster beds, seagrass habitats) and vulnerable marine ecosystems (e.g. nursery grounds to support sustainable fisheries and climate regulation functions of marine environments), which occur within the national territory but are not currently included in the Nature Directives. Resulting in a state-of-the-art holistic approach to identification and selection of MPAs using sound scientific, economic and social data.
- The co-development of MPA Management plans using the data from the ecological and economic evidence-based assessment with results from the local needs assessment. The local teams will foster community engagement by taking part in local biodiversity network activities to develop engaged community networks. The proposals for the management plans will include conservation, monitoring and management objectives and measures for each local area. Building an effective citizen science network to expand the ability of local communities to collect monitoring data.
- The co-management of the Irish MPA Network through EBM processes developed with competent authority, sectoral stakeholder, interest group and public participation. Measures co-designed as part of the designation process will vary according to the site and the nature of activities and pressures. These may include soft measures aimed at raising awareness and changing behaviours on a voluntary basis, as well as hard measures banning or limiting specific activities at different times or in different places. The management measures will form part of the MPA site management plans.
