Gathering Community Voices: Initial Findings on Marine Restoration Challenges and Opportunities in Shetland

Shetland's marine environment supports diverse ecosystems, including species of global conservation importance and commercially valuable fish stocks. These resources underpin critical industries such as fisheries and marine tourism, while offering recreational and cultural benefits to the local community. However, rising challenges, including climate change, pollution, and pressures from marine industries, threaten the region's marine habitats and species. For some species and habitats active restoration efforts are necessary to counteract historic declines, such as seagrass meadows and some seabird populations.
The Marine Restoration and Enhancement Action Plan (MREAP) for Shetland aims to co-create a roadmap tailored to Shetland’s unique environmental and socio-economic needs. The project seeks to guide restoration, and enhancement efforts through a collaborative approach.

Stakeholder Engagement Highlights
A variety of engagement processes were implemented, resulting in feedback from 160 individuals. These included targeted interviews with marine industry, environmental and government groups/organisations, public drop-in sessions, presentation and feedback sessions delivered to nine community councils, and an online survey that was accessible for 60 days.
Key themes emerged from these discussions, providing insights into the Shetland communities restoration and enhancement priorities:
1. Access: Improved infrastructure and accessibility for residents and visitors.
2. Active Restoration or Enhancement Action: Opportunities to restore native species and habitats, such as seagrass meadows and oyster beds.
3. Communication and Education: Enhancing public awareness and promoting marine conservation and sustainable practices through increased communication and educational initiatives.
4. Research and Data: The importance of establishing baseline data and long-term monitoring initiatives.
5. Pressure Removal: Identification of local pressures included marine litter, pollution, and environmental pressures.
Participant responses highlighted key concerns and priorities for action in Shetland’s marine environment. Marine litter was consistently identified as a widespread issue, while the need for establishing baseline data and maintaining ongoing monitoring was strongly emphasised. Participants also expressed a preference for local governance and decision-making in marine restoration and enhancement projects. Where restoration was driven by development mitigation, participants expressed a preference that efforts were as localised to the development as possible (i.e. the same community council area), to ensure measures directly benefit the surrounding environment and community.

Next Steps
The project will continue its engagement strategy, gathering stakeholder feedback to select potential guiding principles for the MREAP and prioritise statements from the initial participant discussions. An online survey will gather responses to refine these priorities, enabling a community-informed approach to Shetland’s marine restoration and enhancement efforts.