UK HMPAs decision is a disaster

Responding to Defra’s announcement today that it will designate just three out of five recommended Highly Marine Protected Areas, Megan Randles, Greenpeace UK political campaigner, said: 

“Defra’s announcement today is a disaster – five HPMAs was the absolute minimum so to lose two with no detail on which sites might replace them is unacceptable.

“It’s the latest example of how the UK government’s inaction is making a mockery of marine protection and marks yet another hit to the UK’s credibility on the world stage. Governments, minus a UK ministerial representative, are meeting right now at the UN in a final attempt to agree a historic Global Ocean Treaty – a crucial tool to achieve the globally agreed target to protect at least 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030.

“The UK government positions itself as a global leader on ocean protection but if it remains absent from these talks and can only bring itself to protect just three small pockets of its own waters, why should other countries listen?