Oceans and seas cover 70 per cent of the Earth's surface. They are a major and distinct source of natural resources, offering us food from fisheries and aquaculture, and opportunities to exploit both renewable energy sources such as wind, wave and tidal power and existing supplies of minerals and fossil fuels. At the same time, the marine environment contains a unique and diverse range of species and habitats, with half of the UK's biodiversity found in our surrounding waters.
The marine and coastal waters around Scotland are vitally important to the sustainable future of the country. Our coasts and seas provide food from fisheries, energy and mineral resources, routes and harbours for shipping, tourism and recreational opportunities and sites of cultural and historical interest, which meet many of our economic and social needs particularly in remote rural areas. At the same time, they contain distinctive and important habitats and support a diverse range of species which we need to protect, conserve and enhance. The Scottish Government, therefore, is committed to ensuring the sustainable use of our coasts and seas and the resources that they contain.
Our aim is to secure a vision of clean, healthy, safe, productive and biologically diverse marine and coastal environments, managed to meet the long term needs of nature and people. Good progress has been made in approaching this vision by tackling the problems facing our oceans and seas, but we must do more nationally and internationally to tackle the threats that remain.
No comments:
Post a Comment