Policy briefs

The British Ecological Society and the Marine Biological Association brought their members together, along with other interested scientists and environmentalists, for a one-day workshop to identify the key challenges and opportunities for marine environmental policy in the UK after Brexit.

Following EU withdrawal, the UK will have full responsibility for fisheries policy and management within its waters.

BES POST fellow (2017) Katherine Maltby has produced a POSTnote summarising the science used to inform management, current approaches to EU fisheries, and challenges and opportunities for future UK fisheries management.

This document is the outcome of a British Ecological Society workshop organised by the Agricultural Ecology Special Interest Group on 6 December 2017 with participants ranging from scientists to farming practitioners. There was broad agreement on what the evidence from science and practice has shown and the main issues that policy should address. The evidence was used to identify a headline goal for agriculture and the environment:

The goal for agriculture is to implement an agro-ecological approach to food production including biodiversity conservation. This should maintain land that is agriculturally productive, rich in wildlife, culturally rich and accessible for the enjoyment of wider society without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

The 25 Year Environment Plan set out by the Government on 11th January 2018 has been met with a mixed response by the environmental community. Its scope and ambition have been praised, both in terms of breath of issues the Plan covers and the ability for long term planning provided by the 25 year timeframe. This has set the Plan apart from previous environmental policies however, concerns have been raised that, in many instances, it does not go far enough and lacks legislative clout. We have tried to highlight the best, worst, and least certain aspects of the Plan in this summary piece. We have concentrated on those issues our members might find most interesting, and on new initiatives, not those in which it is merely proposing to ‘continue support for’ or similar.