Delayed Marine Conservation Zones could curtail green investment

Business groups have warned that the government's decision to delay the establishment of Marine Conservation Zones (MCZs) will have the knock-on effect of impeding investment in the country's burgeoning marine industries, including renewable energy and sustainable fishery projects.

Environment minister Richard Benyon issued a written statement yesterday confirming that an impact assessment of MCZs conducted by Natural England and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee will now present formal advice in July, six months later than originally planned.

Once the advice has been received, the government plans to launch a formal consultation at the end of 2012 and may not designate the first MCZs until the following year.

Benyon said that extra consideration is needed to address the recommendations from the Independent Review of the Evidence Process for Selecting Marine Special Areas of Conservation, published in July, while additional work has also been commissioned by Defra at a number of key sites to establish the likely impact of MCZs.

"The government remains fully committed to establishing MCZs to contribute to an ecologically coherent UK network. However, the need to strengthen the evidence base for the MCZ recommendations means this is going to take longer than the ambitious target first put forward," Benyon wrote.

"We are likely to be able to designate some MCZs fairly quickly where the supporting evidence is adequate. However, for others we anticipate that more investigation will be needed before they can progress towards designation."

The delay was immediately branded "a bitter blow" for the marine environment and economy by shadow environment minister Mary Creagh.

"Far from voting blue and going green, the government appears determined to undo much of the environmental progress started by Labour," she said. "Today we add marine conservation to the list of deadlines they have failed to meet."

Industry body the Seabed User and Developer Group (SUDG), which represents interests committed to sustainable development, including renewable energy, ports, marine leisure firms, and some oil and gas projects, told BusinessGreen that the delay was "not very helpful".

"All the extra delay does is raise question marks," Peter Barham of SUDG said. "It's OK as long as the industry is not expected to twiddle their thumbs while all this is going on. We need development, jobs and energy now."

SUDG claims that its members contribute one million jobs and 4.5 per cent of GDP to the UK economy, and launched a leaflet yesterday calling for immediate action to streamline marine planning process.

However, Barham denied that the group is for development at any cost.

"We're not looking for a compromise where industry wins and the environment loses - it shouldn't be too difficult to find workable solutions," he said.

"We're not saying there shouldn't be MCZs. But we've got to make sure where the zones are designated they don't change the interests of industries which are working in a way that doesn't harm the environment."