How Dorset Wildlife Trust is taking action in each of the five areas we are asking candidates to address (using the 200 word limit per question as requested of candidates).

Q: How will you ensure that the good intentions of recent legislation will succeed in protecting our precious marine wildlife and sustainable livelihoods?
 

• Our seas have been taken for granted and historically received less attention than the natural environment on land, partly because it is much harder for people to see and so appreciate the rich wildlife which is under the waves.
   
• Dorset Wildlife Trust has long championed marine conservation and helped establish the Purbeck Marine Wildlife Reserve as a voluntary marine reserve in 1978. We have a long-established presence through the Fine Foundation Marine Centre at Kimmeridge Bay. We have enabled many people to gain a better understanding of marine conservation through voluntary activities and public events both on the shore and under water. More recently we have been leading a programme to map Dorset’s seabed habitats.
   
• Through our Living Seas programme, Dorset Wildlife Trust wants to see and contribute to a return to a healthy marine environment which is rich in species and a wide range of habitats, and which provides sustainable livelihoods for those that rely on the resources or services it can provide.
   
• Dorset Wildlife Trust supports the designation of Marine Conservation Zones recently enabled through the Marine and Coastal Access Act. These must include some areas which are ‘highly protected’ where all potentially damaging activities are restricted.
   

Imogen Davenport
Director of Conservation