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Ngos And Village Life

The findings reveal that the West of Scotland marine environment possesses a diverse range of vital qualities, providing extensive environmental, economic, cultural, social, aesthetic and option value benefits. These are important at both the local and global scale and establish the area as one of major significance.

The research has found that the West of Scotland marine environment, like many marine areas globally, is under major threat. In this respect, the main body of opinion suggests that fishing and fish farming constitute the primary sources of threat, although it is evident that a lack of underlying research, poor relations between sectors and a lack of strategic planning is also compromising capacity to fully assess and react to the situation.

In exploring a vision of an ideal system of marine environmental education in the West of Scotland, the thesis has established that the NGO sector merits a key role within such a system. This is a particular reflection of NGOs campaign, lobbying and outdoor education strengths. It places the sector in a strong position to take a lead role in bringing about an audit of current marine environmental education resources, a national marine environmental education database and a marine national park, all of which are considered fundamental to optimising marine environmental education in the West of Scotland.

Further analysis has determined that, despite already having a substantial presence in marine environmental education, NGOs still have a significant gap to bridge in order to bring about their optimal role. They need to increase commitment to working together through their umbrella organisation, LINK; they should invest greater effort in resolving disputes, improving collaboration with other sectors and they need to overcome hurdles within the sector to secure a more balanced focus on marine matters relative to terrestrial projects. In addition, NGOs should also adopt more strategic approaches to planning,...