A Coastal and Marine National Park for Scotland in partnership with Integrated Coastal Zone Management

Potential benefits and constraints of a Coastal and Marine National Park (CMNP) for the entire Scottish coastline have yet to be fully debated. This paper recommends using Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) as a process to develop a CMNP. Converting the principles of ICZM into practice Could be strengthened using the National Parks (Scotland) Act 2000. This Act provides the Scottish Executive with an existing legal mechanism to set up the UK's first CMNP. Issues highlighted that would benefit from further investigation include ways to effectively harness expertise, funding considerations, practical implementation and stakeholder participation. A strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats analysis demonstrates a 'quick and dirty' method to help assess whether CMNPs are a viable option for managing Scotland's coastal areas. Strengthening the existing local coastal fora network in partnership with universities that have 'in-house' multi-disciplinary expertise is put forward as one way to implement a CMNP. Stakeholder engagement at the start and throughout the debate on CMNPs warrants a high priority for action. Incentives that help to counter against survey fatigue and actively sustain involvement of civil society and key sectors should be sought from local knowledge. This approach could also address the fundamental gap in translating stakeholder derived information into practical policy recommendations that are more widely supported. Finally, local knowledge can aid resource management plans on a local, national and international scale and be applied to testing management scenarios. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.