The eastern English Channel is a significant economic area that supports a number of human-based activities, such as tourism and recreational activities, international ports and shipping, and the extraction of both living and mineral resources. In addition, the region supports a number of important marine biological features and large habitat diversity. Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are increasingly used as a management tool to foster a sustainable exploitation of marine resources in an ecosystem based management framework. All European countries have a legal obligation to develop MPA networks in their national waters. However, there has to date been only limited attempts to coordinate the design and positioning of such networks at an international level... |