Conservation Advice for Marine Protected Areas: guidance and supporting material

Natural England has provided supplementary material to support understanding of the comprehensive evidence behind the components of the Conservation Advice for Marine Protected Areas. Contained within the table are a series of guidance videos, FAQs, glossary and supporting material to aid users navigate and understand Marine Conservation Advice for Marine Protected Areas.

• Guidance on how to use Conservation Advice for MPAs
• Guidance and supporting material
• Visualisation and mapping material
• Contact Information

Viewing the advice

To view the Conservation Advice package for a Marine Protected Area please visit the 'Search for site details', and then following the link through to the 'Conservation Advice' package.

Guidance on how to use Conservation Advice for MPAs

Item	Description	Link	Last updated
Guidance on how to use Natural England’s Conservation Advice Packages for Environmental Assessments	A formal guidance document that details how to use the packages to inform environmental assessments. Natural England has produced this document for internal staff, however we are offering it externally for stakeholders, to improve user understanding of the advice packages. Please note this document will be revised to include guidance for Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAs).		September 2021
MCZ Assessment Flowchart	Flowchart detailing the MCZ Assessment process.		March 2022
HRA Flowchart	Flowchart detailing the HRA process.		March 2022

Guidance and supporting material

Item	Description	Link	Last updated
March 2024 publication updates	Details of updates made to the advice packages in March 2024		March 2024
October 2023 publication updates	Details of updates made to the advice packages in October 2023		October 2023
May 2023 publication updates	Details of updates made to the advice packages in May 2023		May 2023
March 2022 publication updates	Details of updates made to the advice packages in March 2022		March 2022
September 2021 publication updates	Details of updates made to the advice packages in September 2021		September 2021
March 2021 publication updates	Details of updates made to the advice packages in March 2021		March 2021
March 2020 publication updates	Details of updates made to the advice packages in March 2020		March 2020
September 2019 publication updates	Details of updates made to the advice packages in September 2019		September 2019
March 2019 publication updates	Details of updates made to the advice packages in March 2019		March 2019
Glossary	Glossary of terms used within Natural England's conservation advice packages		March 2019
FAQs	Update information for packages for the publication round		March 2019
DSS guidance	Guidance on navigating pages on the Designated Sites System (DSS)		February 2021
Accessing the CA Packages	How and where to access Natural England's Conservation Advice packages		October 2017
Navigating the packages	How to navigate through Natural England's Conservation Advice packages on the Designated Sites Systems		November 2017
Feature mapping video 1	1. Introduction and New Evidence Collation		November 2017
Feature mapping video 2	2. Standardisation of data and formatting		November 2017
Feature mapping video 3	3. Integration, QA and feature extents		November 2017
Feature mapping video 4	4. Data publication and stakeholder feedback		November 2017
Conservation Objectives and Supplementary Advice on Conservation Objectives	What are the Conservation Objectives of a site and its Supplementary Advice on Conservation Objectives		December 2017
Advice on Seasonality	Provision of advice on seasonality of mobile features		December 2017
Advice on Operations	Provision of advice on operations		January 2018
Conservation Advice on SPAs	How Natural England compiles Conservation Advice for Special Protected Areas (SPAs)		July 2018

Visualisation and mapping material

Item	Description	Link	Last updated
Index maps	Interactive index map with direct links to each conservation advice package and its component on DSS		March 2024
Story map	Interactive web application providing guidance on how to use the packages to inform environmental assessments. (We recommend using the Google Chrome browser to view this).		May 2023

Contact information

For more information, please contact us: MCAProject@naturalengland.org.uk
See Table below for Local Area team contact details

Site location	Contact details
Irish Sea: Cumbria (including Morecambe Bay)	CumbriaAreaTeam@defra.gov.uk
Irish Sea: Cheshire, Lancashire and Merseyside	Cheshire2.Lancashire@defra.gov.uk
Northumbria	NorthumbriaConservationAdvice@naturalengland.org.uk
Yorkshire & North Lincolnshire	YnL.Hub@naturalengland.org.uk
Essex	Essex_conservation_advice@naturalengland.org.uk
Norfolk & Suffolk and the East Midlands teams (Southern North Sea)	EEMarine@naturalengland.org.uk
Kent	Marine-EasternChannel@naturalengland.org.uk
Sussex	Marine-EasternChannel@naturalengland.org.uk
Thames Solent	NEThamesSolentMarineEnquiries@naturalengland.org.uk
Wessex (Dorset and the Severn Estuary)	WessexMarine@naturalengland.org.uk
Devon, Cornwall & Isles of Scilly	DevonCornwallandIslesofScilly@naturalengland.org.uk

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