ALL decisions on protecting the Island’s waters from destructive fishing practices should be made within the next two years, a former Environment Minister has argued in a new amendment to the Marine Spatial Plan.
Deputy Jonathan Renouf’s amendment aims to ensure the plan for protecting Jersey’s territorial waters is implemented with a clear timeline and firm accountability.
This follows an earlier proposal by the Environment, Housing, and Infrastructure Scrutiny Panel which argued a “robust” monitoring framework should be established to ensure the plan is implemented effectively and transparently by current and future governments.
Deputy Renouf’s amendment, which will be debated alongside the Marine Spatial Plan at next week’s States sitting, introduces two deadlines.
It requires the Environment Minister to make final decisions on areas under consideration for the Marine Protected Area Network – areas where towed fishing gear and destructive extractive processes such as dredging are not permitted – by the end of 2025.
It also stipulates that all subsequent amendments to the Marine Spatial Plan must be completed by the end of the current Assembly’s term in 2026.
The plan, which aims to manage the Island’s waters by balancing environmental protection with the interests of the fishing industry, was first introduced by Deputy Renouf last October when he was Environment Minister.
This came after Jersey joined an international “30 by 30” pledge in 2022 as part of a global initiative to conserve 30% of the globe’s terrestrial and marine habitat and protect it from destructive practices by 2030.
For Jersey, this meant expanding its network of areas that prohibit destructive fishing practices from only 6.4% to cover nearly a third of its territorial waters in the next six years.
However, Deputy Steve Luce – who became minister in January – lodged a revised draft of the plan in July that reduced the size of areas protected from 27% to 23% following consultation with the fishing industry.
Deputy Luce argued that this stuck a “balance” between marine users, but the move has drawn criticism from environmental groups and from the former Minister who described the rationale for the reduction as “weak and confused”.
Deputy Luce also recently admitted that Jersey may not meet its target of protecting 30% of its marine environment by 2030.
Speaking to the Environment, Housing, and Infrastructure Scrutiny Panel last month, Deputy Luce said: “We may not get to 30% by 2030, but that’s not my main focus.
“I want to be quite clear – I am not the minister who’s come in and said: ‘We have got to get to 30 by 30’. But I accept that at the moment, we’re not anywhere near the 23% protection we have in this draft of the plan.
“And I accept that by 2030 we will be a lot closer to 30% but we may not get there, not initially. That’s not my driving force behind this at all.
“I want to ensure the protections we implement are meaningful and backed by research… and there are some areas where we want more research done.
“We need to be really sure that if we’re designating a particular area as a marine protected area, there’s something to protect.”
While the 30×30 target remains a long-term goal, the minister emphasised that the Marine Spatial Plan was a “live document” that would continue to evolve as new research became available.
Deputy Renouf’s amendment calls for decisions on certain areas under review for protection to be finalised by the end of 2025.
