SUDG and Natural England held a joint workshop to inform industry stakeholders on the progress of the NE MCA Project to date and demonstrate the interactive Conservation Advice packages hosted on the Designated Sites System (DSS) of NE. Further developments include options for a potential screening tool that will link together NE’s advice under the Conservation Objectives and their Advice on Operations with a view to making it easier for developers and others to quickly screen-out interactions or pressure pathways that can be demonstrated as not being damaging to the site or feature(s), based on the conservation advice available.

Please have a look at the presentations given on the day which are attached to this news item and which set out the work and progress made by NE.

Natural England also presented information about a project whose aim is to better understand what favourable conservation status looks like for individual habitats and species in England – that is, to describe what NE aim to achieve at the England scale. Importantly this will make it much clearer to partners on the outcomes that NE are looking for overall.  It is currently in pilot stage, but NE are developing and testing a methodology for better defining the England contribution to Favourable Conservation Status across both sea and land. 

If you have any views on the workshop and its outputs please contact either Peter Barham SUDG- peterjbarham@googlemail.com or Awantha Dissanayake NE on Awantha.Dissanayake@naturalengland.org.uk

Please click on the links below, you will need Powerpoint and Adobe Reader to open the documents. If you are having difficulty viewing these documents please contact us.

• Title slide and infographic  Powerpoint
• Marine Conservation Advice Powerpoint
• Screening Tool Powerpoint
• FCS Powerpoint
• SUDG Stakeholder Workshop Notes PDF

SUDG and the Marine Management Organisation held a workshop in March to look at what we do and how we can work together better. Please have a look at the zip file which contains Powerpoint presentations about key marine industries and also the results of the discussions which took place during the workshop. SUDG and MMO both agree that to ensure we continue to see Blue Growth and protect and improve the environment, it is essential that we look for better ways of working together, Discussing this in a collaborative and open manner in a workshop environment is an excellent way of examining opportunities and risks.

Please click on the links below, you will need Powerpoint and Adobe Reader to open the documents. If you are having difficulty viewing these documents please contact us.

• Aggregates Powerpoint
• British Marine PDF
• MMO Licensing Improvement Programme Powerpoint
• MMO Marine Planning Update PDF
• MMO SUDG Industry Workshop Overview Word Doc
• Renewable Energy Powerpoint
• Subsea Cables Powerpoint
• Thames Tideway Project Powerpoint
• The Crown Estate PDF

Please have a look at the SUDG paper with our early views on Brexit and environmental legislation.SUDG and Brexit Final version April 2017

SUDG action plan future-sudg-work-september-2016

SUDG has worked closely with Marine Conservation Society, WWF, the Wildlife Trusts and RSPB for a number of years to find closer ways of working to protect the marine environment. In support of this we have recently prepared a joint statement which sets out the shared goals of marine industry and conservation and urges Government to make sure that the network of Marine Protection Areas is properly established, resourced and managed. The industries represented in SUDG are essential to economic growth in the sea but through working with conservation, we all believe that the environment can also be protected and improved. Please let us know your views about the joint statement.Joint Statement May 2016

The Marine Science Co-ordination Committee which reports to Defra produced this note about the value of some marine industries to the UK economy. The note recognises the risks of using different data sources, but gives an aggregated GVA figure of £38.5 bn which represents the most complete valuation that is possible of the marine economy in 2012.

http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0046/00466811.pdf