Knowledge Exchange Fellowship - KE4SEA: Engaging marine stakeholders in NERC-funded conflict research to enhance the effectiveness of Scotland's MPAs

The protection and restoration of marine ecosystems is an international priority. The world's oceans are severely degraded, with changes and losses to the structure, function and benefits from marine systems. This carries environmental implications and potentially devastating consequences for human lives, livelihoods and wellbeing.

People across the world rely on marine resources for food, income, energy and recreation, as well as a form of protection from the damaging impacts of climate change. Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), when guided by robust scientific evidence, have the potential to safeguard marine systems for future generations. However, managers must navigate a complex, multi-stakeholder environment, where balancing the need for marine conservation with social, cultural and economic requirements is difficult.

The conflicts that arise between competing interests and needs within MPAs can derail conservation efforts and critically restrict the flow of knowledge, including NERC-funded ocean science.

Scotland's MPA network is world-leading in its commitment to marine protection, already exceeding the 30% protected area coverage recommended by scientists. The responsibility for MPA management and policy is shared between NatureScot, Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC), Historic Environment Scotland and Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA), and Marine Scotland.

Within the next five years, partners Marine Scotland and NatureScot plan to make changes to MPA management and policy, and designate more MPAs, including marine 'no-take' zones which are the most restrictive form of MPA. To save critical resources, it would be invaluable to decision makers and managers to have an indication of existing and emerging conflicts within the network, and their distribution, intensity and drivers to assist in resource allocation and the development of more efficient, targeted management strategies.

In addition, Marine Scotland and NatureScot require external expertise to facilitate multi-stakeholder forums, and mediate discussions regarding future management decisions. This fellowship will utilise the conflict mediation expertise of the applicant to serve these dual purposes, through pioneering application of the NERC-funded Conservation Conflict Curve as a diagnostic tool to assess conflict distribution, intensity and drivers, a decision support tool to assist in the allocation of resources for conflict management and a facilitation tool to bring together stakeholders and promote shared understanding.

There is a pressing need for greater collaboration between decision-makers, stakeholders, practitioners and researchers - particularly those from the applied social and political sciences - to move theories and frameworks in conflict research into practical tools, approaches and guidance that can contribute to the better management and governance of MPAs and build networks for the effective exchange of knowledge between stakeholders. Furthermore, the international community would benefit from the sharing of the data from this fellowship, which will contribute to a global dialogue on effective management and stakeholder participation of MPAs.

To fulfil these institutional and knowledge needs, the specific objectives of this fellowship are: i) To provide in-depth knowledge and data of existing and emerging conflicts within Scotland's MPA network, including analysis of their distribution, intensity and drivers; ii) Evaluate existing management strategies and deliver a toolkit for decision-makers to guide the de-escalation of conflicts, enhance participation and improve knowledge flow and iii) Co-create an online global database to promote knowledge sharing and integration regarding conflict intensity, distribution and drivers in other MPA networks. This project will deliver an exemplar of best practice that will be expanded both nationally and internationally.