Marine protected areas in the UK: challenges in combining top-down and bottom-up approaches to governance

SUMMARY This review outlines the policy frameworks for marine conservation zones (MCZs) and marine special areas of conservation (SACs), which are the main components of the emerging UK marine protected area (MPA) network. If current recommendations are implemented, the coverage of MPAs in English seas could rise to 27%. The governance challenges that this will raise are explored through case studies of MPA initiatives in south-west England. Whilst the initial processes by which MCZ recommendations have been developed provided for stakeholder participation (bottom-up), the main steer has been from central government (top-down). The subsequent designation and implementation of MCZs is likely to be more top-down. Marine SAC processes have, by contrast, been top-down from the outset. The fishing industry fears that more MPAs will lead to increasing restrictions, whilst conservationists fear that MPAs will not be sufficiently protected, potentially becoming paper MPAs. Both argue that the burden of proof should be placed on the other party. Such combinations of top-down (central government-led) and bottom-up (community and user-led) approaches and the related conflicts are typical of government-led MPAs in temperate countries that have higher governance capacities. Top-down approaches tend to dominate, but this does not mean that they cannot be combined with bottom-up approaches.

• Publication year

  2012

• Venue

  Environmental Conservation

• Publication date

  2012-05-09

• Fields of study

  Political Science, Business, Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1017/S0376892912000136
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• Marine Conservation Zones

  2013cited by this paper
• Johannesburg Plan of Implementation

  2013cited by this paper
• Challenges to achieving greater and fairer stakeholder involvement in marine spatial planning as illustrated by the Lyme Bay scallop dredging closure

  2012cited by this paper
• The role of science in MPA establishment in California: a personal perspective

  2012cited by this paper
• The marine and coastal access act--A hornets' nest?

  2012cited by this paper
• Are the scientific foundations of temperate marine reserves too warm and hard?

  2012cited by this paper
• Shellfishing, Eider Ducks, and Nature Conservation on the Wash: Questions Raised by a Fractured Partnership

  2009cited by this paper
• Equity, justice and power issues raised by no-take marine protected area proposals

  2009cited by this paper
• Biological responses in marine no-take reserves versus partially protected areas

  2008cited by this paper
• Fishing industry and related perspectives on the issues raised by no-take marine protected area proposals

  2008cited by this paper
• Offshore marine conservation policies in the North East Atlantic: Emerging tensions and opportunities

  2007cited by this paper
• Building partnership capacity for the collaborative management of marine protected areas in the UK: a preliminary analysis.

  2005cited by this paper
• Marine protected area strategies: issues, divergences and the search for middle ground

  2004cited by this paper
• World summit on sustainable development

  2002cited by this paper
• Guidelines for Marine Protected Areas

  2000cited by this paper
• Guidelines for marine protected areas

  1999cited by this paper
• Marine nature reserves in Britain: past lessons, current status and future issues

  1999cited by this paper
• Wildlife and Countryside Act

  1984cited by this paper

• Collaborative governance in marine and coastal management: A systematic review

  2026cites this paper
• Empowering Persons with Disabilities through Inclusive Productive Zakat Models: Insights from Indonesian Local Cases

  2025cites this paper
• Enhancing marine protected areas with effective ecological and environmental data integration

  2025cites this paper
• The Multiple Challenges Faced by Coastal and Marine Governance

  2025cites this paper
• A behavioural approach to key area identification in seabirds for threat mitigation and spatial management

  2025cites this paper
• Small-scale fisheries in ecologically sensitive areas in Latin America and the Caribbean: Do marine protected areas benefit fisheries governance?

  2024cites this paper
• Predictive GAM seabed maps can account for defined and fuzzy boundaries to improve accuracy in a scottish sea loch seascape

  2024cites this paper
• Community Asset Mapping in Indonesian Local Micro Enterprise Empowerment: Insights from Sukamantri Village

  2024cites this paper
• Un-muddying the waters: Using benthic and shorebird population data to assess intertidal mudflat conditions and inform management strategies in two Irish Sea marine protected areas

  2023cites this paper
• Ocean literacy in Brazilian formal education: A tool for participative coastal management

  2023cites this paper
• Towards Sustainable Tourism Development in a Small Protected Area: Mapping Stakeholders’ Perceptions in the Alvão Natural Park, Portugal

  2023cites this paper
• Toxic violence in marine sacrificial zones: Developing blue justice through marine democracy in Chile

  2022cites this paper
• . Introduction to the Handbook on the Governance of Sustainable Development

  2022cites this paper
• . Introduction to the Handbook on the Governance of Sustainable Development

  2022cites this paper
• Understanding How Marine Protected Areas Influence Local Prosperity—A Case Study of Gili Matra, Indonesia

  2022cites this paper
• More than a whistle: Automated detection of marine sound sources with a convolutional neural network

  2022cites this paper
• Top-down and bottom-up collaboration as a factor in the technological development of smart city. The example of Taipei

  2022influential citation
• Key principles for effective marine governance, including lessons learned after decades of adaptive management in the Great Barrier Reef

  2022cites this paper
• On the Road to Net Zero Health Care Systems: Governance for Sustainable Health Care in the United Kingdom and Germany

  2022cites this paper
• Ecosystem benefits of adopting a whole‐site approach to MPA management

  2022cites this paper
• The how and what of bottom-up governance to change household energy consumption behaviour

  2022cites this paper
• It’s Just Conservation: To What Extent Are Marine Protected Areas in the Irish Sea Equitably Governed and Managed?

  2021influential citation
• Benefits beyond 'features': Cooperative monitoring highlights MPA value for enhanced seabed integrity

  2021cites this paper
• Review of ecosystem services in a bio-based circular economy and governance mechanisms

  2021cites this paper
• Marine Protected Areas: At the Crossroads of Nature Conservation and Fisheries Management

  2021cites this paper
• Quantifying anthropogenic threats affecting Marine Protected Areas in developing countries.

  2020cites this paper
• Managing a dredge fishery within a marine protected area

  2020cites this paper
• Marine Conservation Begins at Home: How a Local Community and Protection of a Small Bay Sent Waves of Change Around the UK and Beyond

  2020cites this paper
• Enforcement capabilities and compliance in English Marine Protected Areas

  2020cites this paper
• Managing marine protected areas in Europe

  2020cites this paper
• Uneasy bedfellows

  2020cites this paper
• Emerging themes to support ambitious UK marine biodiversity conservation

  2020cites this paper
• Contributions of tourism-based Marine Conservation Agreements to natural resource management in Fiji

  2020cites this paper
• Legal protection of New Zealand’s surf breaks: top-down and bottom-up aspects of a natural resource challenge

  2020cites this paper
• Toward marine democracy in Chile: Examining aquaculture ecological impacts through common property local ecological knowledge

  2020cites this paper
• The making of social injustice and changing governance approaches in urban regeneration: Stories of Enning Road, China

  2020cites this paper
• Ecotourism for wildlife conservation and sustainable livelihood via community-based homestay: a formula to success or a quagmire?

  2020cites this paper
• Legal Regulation of Pollution from Marine Vessels in China: Management from the Perspective of Seafarers

  2020cites this paper
• The Blue Economy–Cultural Livelihood–Ecosystem Conservation Triangle: The African Experience

  2020cites this paper
• Recreational fisheries activities and management in national parks: A global perspective

  2020cites this paper
• Attitudes to a marine protected area are associated with perceived social impacts

  2018cites this paper
• Implications of Marine Protected Areas on Social-Ecological Wellbeing in the Bay of Fundy, Canada

  2018cites this paper
• MPAs, fishery closures and stock rebuilding

  2018cites this paper
• Lack of evidence that governance structures provide real ecological benefits in marine protected areas

  2018cites this paper
• Light and Shade in Marine Conservation Across European and Contiguous Seas

  2018influential citation
• Trade‐offs in marine protection: multispecies interactions within a community‐led temperate marine reserve

  2017cites this paper
• Challenges on providing conservation advice for a growing network of English Marine Protected Areas

  2017cites this paper
• California dreaming: Challenges posed by transposing science-based marine protected area planning processes in different political contexts

  2017cites this paper
• Evaluating the best available social science for natural resource management decision-making

  2017cites this paper
• Assessing public “participation” in environmental decision-making: Lessons learned from the UK Marine Conservation Zone (MCZ) site selection process

  2016cites this paper
• Considering climate change in the development of Marine Protected Areas

  2016cites this paper
• Evaluating the impacts of integrating fisheries and conservation management

  2016cites this paper
• Building the future of MPAs – lessons from history

  2016cites this paper
• Evaluating the social acceptability of Marine Protected Areas

  2016cites this paper
• Scotland's Marine Protected Area network : Reviewing progress towards achieving commitments for marine conservation

  2016cites this paper
• Imprecise and weakly assessed: Evaluating voluntary measures for management of marine protected areas

  2016cites this paper
• Recommendations on Applying Canada-BC Marine Protected Area Network Principles In Canada's Northern Shelf Bioregion: Principles 6, 7, and 8 Produced by PacMARA for the British Columbia Marine Protected Areas Team (MPAT)

  2016cites this paper
• The public perception on NGO's roles in the Bunaken National Park, North Sulawesi, Indonesia; Case study of RARE's community empowerment programme

  2016cites this paper
• A Typology of Stakeholders and Guidelines for Engagement in Transdisciplinary, Participatory Processes

  2016cites this paper
• Effects of ecosystem protection on scallop populations within a community-led temperate marine reserve

  2015cites this paper
• Assessing the socioeconomic effects of multiple-use MPAs in a European setting: A national stakeholders’ perspective

  2015cites this paper
• IMPASEA: A methodological framework to monitor and assess the socioeconomic effects of marine protected areas. An English Channel case study

  2015cites this paper
• Contribution to the Supplement: ‘Lobsters in a Changing Climate’

  2015cites this paper
• Effects of population density and body size on disease ecology of the European lobster in a temperate marine conservation zone

  2015cites this paper
• Effects of ecosystem protection on scallop populations within a community-led temperate marine reserve

  2015cites this paper
• The Dredge Fishery for Scallops in the United Kingdom (UK): Effects on Marine Ecosystems and Proposals for Future Management

  2014influential citation
• Co-location of activities and designations: A means of solving or creating problems in marine spatial planning?

  2014cites this paper
• Governance challenges in scaling up from individual MPAs to MPA networks

  2014cites this paper
• Measuring the effects of Scotland's first fully protected marine reserve

  2014influential citation
• Merging top-down and bottom-up approaches in marine protected areas planning: experiences from around the globe

  2014cites this paper
• The unintended consequences of simplifying the sea: making the case for complexity

  2014cites this paper
• The implications of co-locating marine protected areas around offshore wind farms

  2014cites this paper
• Problems and pressures, management and measures in a site of marine conservation importance: Carmarthen Bay and Estuaries

  2014cites this paper
• Overfishing and the Replacement of Demersal Finfish by Shellfish: An Example from the English Channel

  2014cites this paper
• Use of Long‐Distance Migration Patterns of an Endangered Species to Inform Conservation Planning for the World's Largest Marine Protected Area

  2014cites this paper
• Diverging strategies to planning an ecologically coherent network of MPAs in the North Sea: the roles of advocacy, evidence and pragmatism in the face of uncertainty.

  2014cites this paper
• Investigating the biological and socio-economic impacts of marine protected area network design in Europe

  2013influential citation
• A critical examination of the scientific credentials of Marine Protected Areas : sound science or a leap of faith?

  2013cites this paper
• Marine conservation science and governance in North–West Europe: Conservation planning and international law and policy

  2013cites this paper
• The emerging policy landscape for marine spatial planning in Europe

  2013cites this paper
• Emerging themes to support ambitious UK marine biodiversity Emerging themes to support ambitious UK marine biodiversity conservation conservation

  year unknowncites this paper