eftec is a partner to ABPmer working to prepare the Productive Seas Evidence Group (PSEG) feeder report for Charting Progress 2. This is the Government’s follow-up to its initial Charting Progress report on the state of the marine environment in the UK in 2005. The objective of the work is to identify and source economic data for industry sectors with a presence in the UK’s marine environment and undertake an assessment of the environmental costs of sectoral impacts.

eftec is also working with ABPmer on a study for Defra into how and what socio-economic data should be taken into account in the planning of marine protected area (MPA) networks. The study will review international approaches to using socio-economic data in MPA planning, and organise an expert workshop early in the spring. It will inform the process for taking socio-economic data into account in developing potential networks of Marine Conservation Zones in the UK.