How is this protection achieved & What is it we are trying to Protect?
Controls on the impacts of Specific Activities.
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Introduction
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Government
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Production
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Protection
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Infrastructure
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Contacts
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Controls on the Impacts of
Specific Activities
All the activities that take place within the
Bantry Bay coastal zone have an impact on one another
and on its physical environment. A variety of measures are used to control
impacts where these are
negative. They can be broadly divided into three approaches:
- Permissions to undertake activities;
- Controls/ guidelines on operation of activities;
- Controls/ reductions on discharges and waste products
of activities.
Increasingly, this type of protection is being
pursued in a more integrated manner. An example of this
is the use of Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) and Environmental Impact
Statements (EIS),
which are increasingly required before developments are permitted to go ahead.
These assess the
operation to be carried out and the impacts of it.
Permissions to undertake
activities
A number of activities require permission from
relevant authorities before beginning operation. This
applies to the catching of various fish stocks which are subject to limited
quotas, to foreshore and
aquaculture licences required for aquaculture operations, to felling licences
in relation to forestry and
to planning permissions necessary for the extraction of minerals and other
developments.
Control/ guidelines
on operation of activities
The day to day operation of many activities
is subject to a range of controls and guidelines. These
vary from the compulsory conditions included in a licence to operate, through
to voluntary codes of
good practice. Voluntary initiatives include the Rural Environment Protection
Scheme, which
provides financial rewards for farmers who undertake practices and food production
methods that
support environmental protection. Similarly, grant aid for forestry may be
made conditional on
management systems that are environmentally beneficial. Legislation controlling
the operation of
activities functions at several levels; internationally (for example, in agreements
to limit dumping at
sea and through EU controls on fishing gear), nationally (for example, through
the Health and Safety
Acts), and regionally (for example, through the use of bye-laws).
Controls on discharges
and waste products of activities
All human activities generate discharges and
waste products, and these are limited and supervised
through various mechanisms. Examples include: increasingly industrial activities
require an
Integrated Pollution Licence that regulates their discharges, which are in
turn monitored; waste
reductions are pursued through legislation such as the Waste Management Act
1996; EU
requirements such as the Urban Waste Water Directive demand minimum standards
for sewage
treatment systems. As the above discussion suggests, the systems of protection
are highly complex
and involve many agencies operating at levels from the international through
to the local. At this
level, the role of community initiatives is particularly important in protecting
local resources.
The community agreed the following proposals
in relation to protection in the Bantry Bay coastal
zone.
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