ABPmer was commissioned by Natural Resources Wales to identify the level of sensitivity of habitats and mobile marine species features of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in Wales (specifically Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) and Special Protection Areas (SPAs) to a range of unregulated or partially regulated activities which had been identified as potentially occurring on or interacting with these features.

Outputs from the study included a series of sensitivity matrices and a supporting technical report.

These outputs are being used to focus future work assessing the vulnerability of features to activities, and ultimately the development of management interventions (where needed) to improve or maintain the condition of features protected across Wales’s network of MPAs.

Header photo courtesy Andrew Pearson

ABPmer routinely advises marine sectors on regulatory and policy matters and has a long history supporting government and its agencies in developing the evidence base against which policy decisions are made.