A new easier-to-use version of the key guidance for Marine Conservation Zones has been published.

The new guide has been produced by Natural England and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) to help people understand the Ecological Network Guidance, one of the key documents in the process for identifying Marine Conservation Zones.

It reduces the full 142 page guidance to a less daunting 23 page quick reference version.

The Ecological Network Guidance is Natural England’s and the JNCC’s statutory advice on what is required to meet the government’s network of Marine Protected Areas for much of the UK. It sets out the objectives for selecting individual Marine Conservation Zones.

It will be used by the Irish Sea Conservation Zones project and the three other regional Marine Conservation Zones projects around England to recommend conservation zones.

You can read the new quick reference guide here.

Photograph by Paul Kay.