Marine protected areas in the UK: law and society

Pieraccini, Margherita (2017). Marine protected areas in the UK: law and society. [Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Archive. 10.5255/UKDA-SN-852132

This socio-legal project focused on the on-going efforts to establish an ecologically coherent network of marine protected areas (MPAs) as required under the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 (MCAA) and Marine (Scotland) Act 2010. The network comprises MPAs of international, European and national importance, including new marine conservation zones established under the MCAA and new nature conservation MPAs under the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010

The project was aimed at capturing the key social and ecological dimensions of marine conservation law at this turning point by:
1) critically assessing designation and management strategies contributing to the creation of the network and
2) by loooking at the impacts of marine conservation law on the identities and roles of sea users and other stakeholders.

The project has contributed to the academic literature in this area and enabled awareness raising with stakeholders. Methodologically, desk-based analysis of marine conservation law complemented fieldwork in two case study areas in England and one in Scoltand to compare different realities. In each case study area, primary research, predominantly in the form of semi-structured interviews has been conducted with sea users (esp. fishermen), conservation bodies and regulators.
The strategies for disseminating research findings have included peer-reviewed publications, presentation at academic conferences, a website, stakeholder workshops and a final symposium organised in Sept 2015 at the University of Bristol bringing together both the academics and the policy community.

Data description (abstract)

The dataset contains transcripts of semi-structured interviews conducted in each of the case study area of the project with sea-users, conservation bodies and regulators and also elite interviews with regulators and Statutory Nature Conservation bodies in England and Scotland.

Data creators:

Creator Name	Affiliation	ORCID (as URL)
Pieraccini Margherita	University of Bristol

Contributors:

Name	Affiliation	ORCID (as URL)
Cardwell Emma
Mansfield Sam

Sponsors:

Economic and Social Research Council

Grant reference:

ES/K001043/1

Topic classification:

Natural environment
Law, crime and legal systems
Society and culture

Keywords:

marine protected areas, nature conservation law, united kingdom, small-scale fishing, island communities

Project title:

Ecologies and Identities:a socio-legal exploration of the Marine Protected Areas network in the UK

Grant holders:

Dr Margherita Pieraccini

Project dates:

From	To
1 October 2012	30 September 2015

Date published:

10 Dec 2015 16:46

Last modified:

14 Jul 2017 13:10

Coverage and Methodology

Collection period:

Date from:	Date to:
1 October 2012	30 September 2015

Geographical area:

Different locations in England and Scotland

Country:

United Kingdom

Data collection method:

Semi-structured interviews & Video with stakeholders;

More specifically interviews were conducted in the South-East in 2013-2014, in the Isles of Scilly in 2014 and in South-West Scotland in 2014. Elite interview with national representatives were carried out in 2015. All interviews were conducted by Margherita Pieraccini, except those for the Scottish case study conducted by Emma Cardwell (research asssistant for the project, who was also present when conducting the 2014 interviews in the South-East). The dataset also contain the ethics consent standard form that interviewees were asked to sign, the form given to them regarding the information on the project and also the standard questionnaires (adapted during the interviews as they were semi-structured interviews). Clearly, the data set contains only those interviews of stakeholders who gave their consent for the interviews to be shared.
Also, the dataset contains a short film created in 2013 with the help of filmaker Sam Mansfield with the voices of the fishermen in relation to the designation of Marine Conservation Zones.
Other information can be found on the project website so it is already available to the public: http://www.ecologiesandidentities.com/

Observation unit:

Individual

Kind of data:

Text, Video

Type of data:

Qualitative and mixed methods data

Resource language:

English

Access and Administration

Data sourcing, processing and preparation:

Before conducting the fieldwork, I obtained ethical consent from my University following ethics guidelines. Before each interview started, they were given a form containing info on the project and a consent form to sign. Then if they agreed to take part, each interviewee was asked how they would like to be referred to and the transcripts to be found in this data set reflect those choices. Also, some of the interviewees wanted to double check the transcirpts in case any amendments was necessary and the transcripts do reflect the final version, as agreed by the interviewees. The interviews have all be anonymised to comply with ethical requirements and if interviewees made references to particular names (recognisable), these have been erased from the text replacing the name with "x" or multiple Xs. Finally, obviosuly, the data set only contain interviews of those who agreed for their data to be shared with others. The participants in the video, done in 2013, were happy for their identities to be disclosed, so the video does contain their names.

Rights owners:

Name	Affiliation	ORCID (as URL)
Pieraccini Margherita	University of Bristol

Contact:

Name	Email	Affiliation	ORCID (as URL)
Pieraccini, Margherita	m.pieraccini@bristol.ac.uk	University of Bristol Law School	Unspecified

Notes on access:

The Data Collection is available for download to users registered with the UK Data Service.

Publisher:

UK Data Archive

Last modified:

14 Jul 2017 13:10

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Related Resources

Website

Ecologies and Identities:a socio-legal exploration of the Marine Protected Areas network in English seas

Project website

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