Shetland continues to be at the forefront of inshore shellfishery management as demonstrated by its recent involvement in a recent European Forum event.
Dr Martin Robinson, Head of Marine Science and Technology at the NAFC Marine Centre in Shetland, was invited to speak at the extraordinary meeting of the Employers’ Group of the European Economic and Social Committee at the European Forum for New Ideas in Gdansk.
The invitation to speak came on the back of a presentation Dr Robinson delivered earlier this year to EU officials and Members of the European Parliament who visited Shetland to discuss the innovative approach to local inshore shellfisheries management.
Dr Robinson spoke on the wider ‘societal’ responsibilities of business at the recent European Forum event.
He was one of a ten-strong panel of invited speakers, which included business leaders from across Europe, who answered questions from a large audience of business representatives. He was specifically asked if he felt that ‘environmental initiatives’ taken by companies were purely for marketing and publicity reasons.
He responded that once companies complied with the minimum legal obligations with regards to the environment, the motivation was somewhat irrelevant as the company, environment and consumer could all benefit.
Dr Robinson commented, “The debate also focused on new ideas or changes that might help address the current outlook within Europe and to this I put forward the fact that much could be learned from Shetland, where community and stakeholder involvement in the resource management occurred. I expressed that the usual norm of centralised governmental management of resources did not necessarily allow those that knew the local area and conditions best to have a voice in how resources were exploited and that the EU should consider local data, knowledge and management as they review current policies.”
NAFC Marine Centre is the operating name of the Shetland Fisheries Training Centre Trust, for more information visit: http://www.nafc.ac.uk
