MASTS is made by and for its members
This Forum is a centre for dialogue across the marine planning community and offers expertise, knowledge exchange and collaboration. By addressing the complex and wide-ranging research needed to support marine planning activities in Scotland, the Forum draws diverse expertise from a variety of stakeholders.
2024: MASTS Open Forum Session “Policy Approaches to Enhancing the Marine & Coastal Environment”In this session, the Forum hosted presentations to share insights from developing policy and guidance which is taking forward new approaches to conserving, restoring and enhancing biodiversity. Talks cover the development of a biodiversity metric to support the delivery of National Planning Framework 4; the work of Scottish Government’s Marine Nature Enhancement Programme; and from Natural England on evidence projects which are contributing to understanding how biodiversity net gain can be applied to the marine environment.
Coordinated by the MASTS Marine Planning and Governance Forum, the aim of this session is to facilitate shared understanding of different approaches emerging, consider the connectivity between terrestrial and marine methodologies and explore challenges around implementation and other aspects.
“Marine Natural Enhancement in Scotland”
Speaker: Janelle Braithwaite, Marine Nature Enhancement Programme, Marine Directorate, Scottish Government
“Scottish Government have set a clear ambition in the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy to be Nature Positive by 2030 and to have restored and regenerated biodiversity by 2045. Alongside this, Scotland’s Blue Economy Vision is for shared stewardship of our marine environment that supports ecosystem health, improved livelihoods, economic prosperity, social includes and wellbeing. Here, I will provide an overview of the work we are doing in the marine nature enhancement programme in the Marine Directorate to stimulate nature positive actions towards our biodiversity goals and promoting shared stewardship of our marine space.”
“A Biodiversity Metric for Scotland’s Planning System”
Speaker: Paul Taylor, Scottish Biodiversity Metric Officer at NatureScot
“NatureScot has been commissioned by the Scottish Government to develop a biodiversity metric for Scotland’s planning system. This is specifically to support delivery of National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) Policy 3b, with a focus on adapting the existing English statutory biodiversity metric to produce a tool that is suitable for use in Scotland. The metric will only apply to development on land (including intertidal habitats), and not the marine environment. In this talk, we will introduce the work we are doing to develop a Scottish biodiversity metric and highlight some of the identified challenges that will need to be considered, particularly in relation to intertidal habitats.”
Julia Steel (Heriot-Watt University) and Anton Kuech (University of Aberdeen) were awarded a bursary from the MASTS Marine Planning & Governance Forum to attend the Seas Scotland conference which took place in Stirling in early June.
2023: Policy Brief published by the Forum on “Marine Natural Capital” >>> PDF Available HERE!This Policy Brief is part of a series aiming to inform policymakers on current knowledge and practice in areas of marine research relevant to decision making.
Its publication was commissioned by MASTS and prepared by the MASTS Marine Planning & Governance Forum with in-kind contribution by NatureScot and UHI Shetland which supported the production of this brief. Key points of this brief include:
The origins of the natural capital concept | How natural capital can transform decision-making | Why monetary valuation can be useful | Natural capital approaches using non-monetary valuation | Opportunities to embed natural capital approaches
The MMO1375 document was published on the 12th September 2024 and delivered by Howell Marine Consulting (HMC).
It represents the first step in investigating a multi-level approach regarding marine planning in England. This would facilitate more inclusive and participatory decision-making.
“Using Marine Planning to Balance Competing Demands” (PDF)
Written by Shucksmith, R., Stojanovic, T., Slater A.M., Withouck, I., Allan, K for the ECCLR committee (2021).
“Key Issues in Marine Governance”
Written by Stojanovic, T.A. Withouck, I. (2021) Based on a Forum Workshop.
“Passport to the oceans of the future: delivering marine energy with science linked to policy”
Written by Slater, A. (2021)
2017: Forum Workshop
A Workshop to provide a sense-check of the draft Clyde & Shetland Regional Assessments. (March 2017)
2016: Workshop at the MASTS Annual Science Meeting
“Where are we? Exploring the National Marine Plan Review Process in Scotland” A report produced by the Forum (Glasgow, 21st October 2016).
The MASTS Marine Planning & Governance Forum was established in January 2013, to support dialogue across the marine planning community and to address the complex and wide-ranging research needed to support marine planning activities in Scotland. In 2018, Tim & Rachel took over from Lucy as co-convenors of the Forum. Their vision for the forum is that we collaboratively develop two goals. Firstly we will encourage research for planning and management- which will inform and provide an evidence base for various applied assessments and real-world questions. For MPG this will involve engaging those in other MASTS fora to support wider understanding of marine planning, management and regulatory processes. It will also involve engaging professional practitioners to understand their needs and requirements and highlight novel opportunities provided by science.
Secondly we will foster research about marine planning and governance. This will draw together social scientists and interdisciplinary researchers across Scotland, especially those who evaluate and analyse marine planning, but also and other related topics, including but not limited to: the ecosystem approach, ecosystem services framework, good governance, development in maritime sectors and blue growth. There is a need to explore how MPG can best support this. This vision is premised upon on convictions about: the number of focussed but tractable and timely goals the Forum can achieve in the next two years; the current and potential make-up of the fora (which spans social scientists, natural scientists and those in government and professional practice at both national and regional scales); and convictions about the nature of good scholarship.
We invite others to get involved in forming the vision, and recognise that others in the forum might have broader goals and we are keen to facilitate these too. In Scotland, the National Marine Plan was published in March 2015, and work is now underway to develop Regional Marine Plans across the 11 Scottish Marine Regions in territorial waters. The MASTS Marine Planning & Governance Forum leads dialogue between the Government, marine planners, local authorities, stakeholders and the scientific community, to identify and address the knowledge gaps in implementing effective marine planning. Key activities include identification of strategic research needs for marine planning, development of research opportunities from Masters projects to long-term international funding calls, a web-based platform to understand and connect research capacity across MASTS, etc. With close involvement of Marine Scotland and current / future marine planners, the Forum aims to bring together the academic community to strategically develop applied and interdisciplinary research essential to enable evidence-based governance for sustainable management of our seas.
Marine Spatial Planning Manager
Interests: Applied marine research | Commercial experience| Process of effective management in marine & fisheries management | National & international projects
Marine Planning & Policy Advisor
Interests: Marine Spatial Planning | Policy Implementation | Regional Marine Planning | Applying Natural Capital Approaches to decision making | Positive Effects for Biodiversity/Biodiversity Net Gain
MASTS was founded in 2009 to be a unique collaboration between marine research organisations, government and industry.
Charity Number: SC045259
Company Number: SC485726
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