Catalogue description Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Marine and Waterways Division: Marine Protection (MARP Prefix Series)

Marine and Waterways Division had responsibilities under the Food and Environment Protection Act 1985 to licence deposits in the sea in order to protect the marine ecosystem and human health and minimise interference and nuisance to other users of the sea.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs act as the lead co-ordinating department for the UK, as part of the 16 contracting parties to the OSPAR convention which is the mechanism by which fifteen Governments of the western coasts and catchments of Europe, together with the European Community, cooperate to protect the marine environment of the North-East Atlantic. The Marine and Waterways division works alongside other departments to ensure the UK is meeting the agreed goals of the convention.

The business area has been heavily involved in the:

- Charting Progress report (now superseded the Charting Progress 2 report) which is a comprehensive report on the state of the UK seas

- UK Marine Monitoring and Assessment Strategy (UKMMAS) which helps to deliver the UK marine vision of clean, safe, healthy, biologically diverse and productive seas and oceans.

- Development of the Marine Environment Monitoring and Assessment National Database (MERMAN) which holds UK data collected to fulfil the mandatory monitoring requirements under the Oslo and Paris Convention (OSPAR) Joint Assessments and Monitoring Programme (JAMP).