Marine Protected Areas
(asked on 14th March 2019) - View Source
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many square kilometres of marine protected areas there were in (a) the UK and (b) UK overseas territories in each year for which data is available.
a) Marine Protected Areas in the UK:
Year | Area (km2) |
2012 | 73,890 |
2013 | 82,952 |
2014 | 143,497 |
2015 | 143,651 |
2016 | 165,252 |
2017 | 207,477 |
2018 | 209,185 |
b) Marine Protected Areas in UK overseas territories:
UK OT | MPA (km2) | Date of designation |
British Antarctic Territory South Orkney Islands Southern Shelf MPA | 94,000 | 2009 |
British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos) | 640,000 | 2010 |
South Georgia and Sandwich Islands | 1,240,000 | 2012; enhanced in 2013 & 2018 |
Pitcairn Islands | 840,000 | 2016 |
St Helena | 445,000 | 2016 |
TOTAL | 3,259,000 |
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In addition to these Marine Protected Areas, as announced in the Spring Statement, the UK Government is backing an Ascension Island bid to protect 100% of its offshore waters. Ascension Island plans to designate over 445,00km2 of its waters as a fully protected no-take Marine Protected Area.
Tristan da Cunha has committed to designating a comprehensive marine protection regime across its 750,000km2 maritime zone by 2020.