COAST was invited by Scottish Environmental LINK to give a presentation at a fringe event of the Scottish Nationalist Party Conference at Aviemore on the 26th of Oct 2007.The meeting was chaired by Richard Lochhead, MSP Cabinet Secretary for Environmental & Rural affairs.
Dr Becky Boyd , Don MacNeish, Richard Lochheed & Dr Dan Barlow. Photos courtesy Julia Harrison
At the fringe meeting - 'A Marine Bill for Scotland - A better deal for coastal communities' was well attended, a full house in fact! Becky Boyd SWT, Don MacNeish COAST and Dan Barlow WWF spoke and Richard Lochhead chaired. The take home message from Lochhead was that the Scottish government is demanding devolution of nature conservation from 12-200nm and that they would like NGOs to back this position to help speed up the process.
Don’s talk centered on the desperate need for a Marine Act in Scotland, and how at the moment local island communities have little or no say on what happens in thesea that surrounds them.After the event COAST presented to Richard Lochhead a copy of Callum Robert’s new book “The Unnatural History of the Sea” and a copy of our DVD “Caught in Time”.