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Managing the sea for birds – Fair Isle and adjacent waters
This report addresses a long-held consensus amongst the Fair Isle community, The National Trust for Scotland (the landowner) and other user groups that the waters around Fair Isle merit some form of marine protection. We believe that this is unprecedented in the UK. In recognition of this, the recently launched Fair Isle Marine Environment and Tourism Initiative aims to deliver a more integrated approach to managing Fair Isle waters. We hope that the report will help to achieve this. We also intend to contribute to the wider debate on marine protected areas. The report aims to clarify the management implications of protecting Fair Isle waters which are important for birds, both within territorial waters (as SPAs) and beyond territorial limits. In doing so, we have shown that marine management for conservation purposes does not automatically involve the banning of existing human activities. Our intention is not to write the definitive management plan for Fair Isle waters. We hope that the provision of an illustrative management plan will show that a marine protected area would be to the benefit of the Fair Isle community and other user groups, as well as the island’s internationally important seabird populations. Locally-based marine management measures would facilitate more sustainable use of Fair Isle waters, and we commend this approach to Government.
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Send mail to
dave.wheeler@fairisle.org.uk with questions or comments about
this web site.
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