Liberation Room, Secretariat
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AGENDA Meeting of the Environmental Committee Thursday 20 th July 2017 at 9.00am Liberation Room, Secretariat Distribution List:- Hon. Mr Michael Poole, MLA Hon. Mrs Jan Cheek, MLA Representative, Falkland Islands Tourist Board Representative, Rural Business Association Representative, Department of Agriculture Representative, Falkland Islands Fishing Companies Association Representative, Falklands Conservation Representative, South Atlantic Environmental Research Institute Mr Mike Evans, Community Representative Mr Sam Cockwell, Community Representative Miss Emily Hancox, Community Representative Environmental Officer Head of Environmental Planning HE The Governor Principal Crown Counsel Environmental Committee 9.00am, July 20 th 2017 Liberation Room, Secretariat, Stanley Part I (Open) 1.0 Apologies for Absence 2.0 Declarations of Interest 3.0 Confirmation of the minutes of the meeting held on 16th March 2017 4.0 Matters Arising: 4.1 Invasives Biosecurity Strategy Verbal Update 5.0 Marine Spatial Planning: AFCAS Consultation Report Report Attached 6.0 Falkland Islands Seabird Monitoring Programme: Annual Report 2016/2017 (SMP24) Report Attached 7.0 Island LandCare Report for weed control 2016/17 Report Attached 8.0 Landing Fees Increase Verbal Update 9.0 Stanley Common Ordinance Consultation Report Attached 10.0 Giant Petrels ACAP status Letter Attached 11.0 Research Licence Applications 11.1 Continued studies on the ecology of Thin-billed Prions Application Attached 11.2 Ecological segregation and monitoring of penguins at New Island Application Attached 11.3 Overwinter movements, habitat utilization, and carryover effects in Gentoo penguins. Application Attached Principle Researcher CV attached 11.4 Extension to inshore dolphins sampling research Application to Follow Biopsy Summary Report Attached 12.0 Papers of interest (available on request from EO): Soil resource studies for a National Soil Map of the Falkland Islands; Preliminary Project Report by R.G.O. BURTON Shackleton Scholar 2016–17 1 June 2017 Polar zoobenthos blue carbon storage increases with sea ice losses, because across-shelf growth gains from longer algal blooms outweigh ice scour mortality in the shallows David K Barns The spiders of the Falkland Islands 1: Erigoninae (Arineae, Linyphiidae) Alistair H. Lavery and Rowley G. Snazell Annotated checklist of the spiders, harvestmen, and pseudoscorpions of the Falkland Islands and South Georgia, Alastair H. Lavery How animals distribute themselves in space: variable energy landscapes, Juan F. Masello , Akiko Kato, Julia Sommerfeld, Thomas Mattern and Petra Quillfeldt Albatrosses prospect before choosing a home: intrinsic and extrinsic sources of variability in visit rates, Letizia Campioni, Jose Pedro Granadeiro, Paulo Catry Does genetic structure reflect differences in non-breeding movements? A case study in small, highly mobile seabirds, Petra Quillfeldt , Yoshan Moodley, Henri Weimerskirch, Yves Cherel, Karine Delord, Richard A. Phillips, Joan Navarro, Luciano Calderón and Juan F. Masello 13.0 Date of next meeting August 2017 – Environmental Studies Budget Allocation The Assessment of Fishing Closure Areas as Sites for wider marine management in the Falkland Islands AFCAS Consultation Report Report prepared by Neil Golding, SAERI July 2017 1 Version Control Table Version Date Author Comments 0.1 04/06/17 NG Draft for MSP Steering Committee review (Diane Simsovic, MLA Michael Poole, Paul Brickle, Nick Rendell, John Barton, Stephen Luxton, FIFCA (Stuart Wallace/Tom Blake)) 0.2 23/06/17 NG Includes comments from DS/NR/MP/TB/SL & JB and agreement of outstanding issues at 30/6/17 MSP Steering Committee 0.3 10/07/17 NG Updated following comments from TB (FIFCA) 0.4 14/07/17 NG Version approved for circulation by MSP Steering Committee Citation: Golding. N., 2017. Consultation Report on the Assessment of Fishing Closure Areas as Sites for wider marine management in the Falkland Islands (AFCAS). South Atlantic Environmental Research Institute (SAERI), 42pp. 2 Contents 1. Purpose of the consultation and how it was carried out ................................................................ 4 1.1. Background and purpose of the consultation ........................................................................ 4 1.2. How the consultation was carried out .................................................................................... 5 1.2.1. Consultation document & supporting info ..................................................................... 5 1.2.2. How was it advertised? ................................................................................................... 5 1.2.3. Consultation events ........................................................................................................ 6 2. Consultation responses ................................................................................................................... 7 2.1. The consultation response assessment process ..................................................................... 7 2.2. Summary of consultation responses ....................................................................................... 7 2.3. Analysis of consultation responses under the theme ‘General Comments’ ........................ 12 2.4. Analysis of consultation responses under the theme ‘Management’ .................................. 24 2.5. Analysis of consultation responses under the theme ‘Evidence’. ........................................ 33 3. Conclusions and recommendations .............................................................................................. 37 Annex I: Consultation response form .............................................................................................. 38 Annex II: Letter sent out to Camp settlements ................................................................................ 39 Annex III: List of Camp settlements where AFCAS consultation packs were posted. ...................... 40 Annex IV: Penguin News article – 24th March 2017 .......................................................................... 41 Annex V: Poster advertising the AFCAS consultation and public consultation meeting. ................. 42 3 1. Purpose of the consultation and how it was carried out 1.1. Background and purpose of the consultation Following the successful completion of the Darwin-Plus funded Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) project in summer 2016, there was a desire to maintain the momentum this project generated, as well as utilise some of the tools and datasets developed. Falkland Islands Government (FIG) directed SAERI1 to undertake this second phase of the project (MSP Phase II) on behalf of the Department of Natural Resources (DNR). While two of the work packages looked at reviewing current Falklands legislation with respect to future MSP implementation and developing a long-term strategy for MSP in the form of a paper to Executive Committee, the other work package (in the form of a case study) looked to create a tangible output that demonstrated the benefits of the MSP tools developed through the first MSP project to local government; assessing the current fishing closure areas as sites for wider marine management (AFCAS) was this case study. With the UK ratifying the Convention of Biological Diversity, and being extended to the Falklands in the summer of 2016, FIG recognised the need to protect at least 10% of the Falklands coastal and marine area, in order to meet its Aichi Targets. The AFCAS case study, which assessed these fishing closure areas against international protected area criteria, demonstrated that with some small changes, such as specifically stating nature conservation objectives, FIG could use pre-existing permanent and temporary closures as sites for wider marine management, whilst also meeting some of its international protected area Aichi Targets. The findings from this assessment of fishing closure areas case study, known as AFCAS, were documented in a report. The report outlined potential Marine Management Areas (MMAs) that could be developed from existing fishing closures, as well as ideas on how these could be managed into the future. Some aspects contained within the AFCAS report had been discussed previously with stakeholders. For example, options around some form of protected area being overlaid onto the same area as the current inshore (3nm) fishing exclusion area were discussed at the third ‘Framing MSP’ stakeholder workshop2 of the Darwin Plus MSP project, hosted on HMS Clyde in April 2016, and was a “generally-accepted idea” by the workshop participants . However, the AFCAS report also contained many new ideas that hadn’t been discussed in depth with stakeholders. 1 SAERI was operating as an arm of FIG until it became an independent body on 30th June 2017 2 http://www.south-atlantic-research.org/media/files/MSP_Falkands_Framing-Workshop-report_5- 7_April_2016_FINAL.pdf 4 Following report sign-off by the project Steering Committee, and discussion with the project Stakeholder Group, the AFCAS public consultation was launched on Wednesday 15th March 2017, and ran for nearly eight weeks, until Friday 5th May. 1.2. How the consultation was carried out 1.2.1. Consultation document & supporting info A consultation response form was developed which sought answers to a number of key questions such as “What do you think about the results from the assessment of current fishing closure areas…” and “What do you think about the criteria/evidence on which the proposed Marine