Engaging stakeholders in the Celtic Seas in the Marine Strategy Framework Directive Dr Lyndsey Dodds Celtic Seas Partnership Project Manager ldodds@wwf.org.uk www.celticseaspartnership.eu Twitter/celticseaspartnership

PISCES: Partnership Involving Stakeholders in the Celtic Sea Ecosystem

Improving stakeholder participation Encouraging stakeholders to implement their own solutions Greater communication between stakeholders and governments Mechanisms for integrated marine management

Celtic Seas Partnership Four year EC LIFE+ funded project (until December 2016) WWF-UK led with University of Liverpool, NERC-BODC, SeaWeb and Southern and Eastern Regional Assembly (Ireland) Builds on successful PISCES project.

Aim of project To support the delivery of Good Environmental Status in the Celtic Seas, by facilitating engagement between sectors and across borders to ensure the long term future of the environment, while safeguarding people’s livelihoods and the communities that have a relationship with the sea.

Why? Recognise benefits of stakeholder engagement Support objectives of MSFD Recognise benefits and challenges of regional management Identified gap for cross-sectoral, multi-national engagement Experience from PISCES and other initiatives Ecosystem approach and regional management Experience from PISCES: Increased support and understanding Increased input of knowledge, data and information Increased integration and coordination Builds trust and creates a community

What we’re trying to achieve: Increase stakeholder understanding of marine policy Build & develop relationships between sectors and countries Influence management practices Increase stakeholder involvement in marine policy and decision-making Improve the availability of information at Celtic Seas scale.

Development of measures Working with stakeholders to develop measures Using workshops, online surveys, and expert advice to develop ideas and identify priority areas based on stakeholder interests and current gaps/weaknesses Measures will be fed into government consultations and/or taken forward by stakeholders I’m going to talk in more detail about one of the key areas of our work: the development of measures by stakeholders. Through discussions with government representatives, we decided that the key area where we can add value to the MSFD is through working with stakeholders to develop some practical and well-supported measures to achieve Good Environmental Status. Measures will either be provided directly as recommendations to government consultations, or taken forwards as stakeholder initiatives, where there is potential to do this.

First step is to increase understanding…

Challenges Differences between countries AND scale of engagement

Stakeholder fatigue – vary approach to deal with it Also: Specific sectoral needs for engagement vary Challenges of working in a diverse group Lack of economic incentive to be involved Cost of being involved (loss of earnings/time) Policy drivers vary across countries Lack of a perception of a crisis or specific problem Previous experience with stakeholder engagement projects is not always favourable

Differences between sectors Leading on to resource intensive

Engagement to date 70 stakeholders from industry, government and academia attend first conference 6 workshops in Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales, England, France and Ireland attended by a total of 180 stakeholders 661 stakeholders engaged in project activities across the 6 project countries from 10 different sectors. UK, Devolved Administrations, France and Ireland governments the EC and OSPAR sign up to ‘Celtic Seas Partnership statement of support’

Outcomes Stakeholders have a better understanding of marine policy and recognise the importance of engaging with decision making Governments recognise the role of stakeholders in supporting MSFD implementation Better communication and coordination between sectors and countries in the Celtic Seas Governments and industry recognise the role of regional stakeholder forums in integrated marine management. Need this slide?

Recommendations Engage early and use a range of approaches Ensure transparency and more than tick box exercise Build in time and resources Use existing networks/opportunities Sub-regional stakeholder forums across Europe?

Genuine engagement is… more challenging, more time consuming, more likely to give you headaches BUT gives better results…

Thank you! www.celticseaspartnership.eu Sign up to our e-newsletter! Dr Lyndsey Dodds Celtic Seas Partnership Project Manager ldodds@wwf.org.uk Illustrations by Kim McGillivary www.celticseaspartnership.eu Sign up to our e-newsletter!