SSMEI Clyde Pilot

About the Clyde Pilot

Background, Aims and Objectives

The Firth of Clyde pilot is one of four projects established under SSMEI  to investigate and test new approaches to the sustainable management of Scotland’s marine environment. The Clyde pilot aims to enable and promote more integrated and sustainable management of the marine and coastal environments and associated activities in the Firth of Clyde. The project covers all the marine or tidal extents within the Firth of Clyde, from the tidal weir at Glasgow Green, to the heads of Loch Long and Loch Fyne. The seaward boundary is from the tip of the Mull of Kintyre across to Finnarts Point, north of Loch Ryan. 

A central precept of the Clyde Pilot is that it should seek to deliver the ideals of ecosystem based management and sustainable development through the establishment of an effective and integrated stakeholder-regulator partnership for the marine and coastal areas of the Firth of Clyde. The basis for such a partnership already exists through the operation of the Firth of Clyde Forum, and the Core Group of the Forum acts as the Steering Group for the Clyde Pilot. However, while the focus of the Forum is on integrated coastal zone management (ICZM), the Clyde Pilot extends beyond the coastal zone into the marine areas of the Firth (see map), and will investigate novel approaches to management and decision making in the marine environment.

The Clyde pilot will focus on the development of mechanisms and tools to underpin and facilitate the operation of the proposed stakeholder-regulator partnership for the Firth, with the aim of delivering more sustainable and efficient decision making . In this context, the project’s main objectives and associated outputs are:

• Development and implementation of an agreed, multi-sectoral, Local Marine Spatial Plan for natural resource use, development control and management of the marine and coastal areas of the Firth of Clyde;

• Development, within the existing statutory framework, of improved Decision Support Mechanisms for the marine environment of the Firth of Clyde; and

• Development of a web-based Common Information Resource for the Firth of Clyde marine area.