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Maritime Spatial Planning Goes Global

IOC-UNESCO/DG MARE

By IW:LEARN

June 16^th, 2019

Intensified human activities in coastal and marine waters such as fishing, tourism and shipping require integrated planning and decision-making, including transboundary coordination as well as enhanced efforts to achieve sustainability. At the same time, the marine ecosystem is facing increasingly significant stress from climate change, habitat destruction and overexploitation, threatening the economic activities that rely upon these resources.

Through fostering integrated management practices to protect and restore these ecosystems, strengthen resilience and promote a healthy and productive ocean, Marine/Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) has proved to be a critical means to achieve global ocean governance goals and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Based on successful experiences of cross-border and transboundary MSP projects, UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC-UNESCO) and the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (DG MARE) have launched MSPglobal, a joint initiative to develop new international guidelines on MSP.

Two pilot projects will be implemented to create a repository of data, knowledge, policy and decision-making tools to strengthen local authorities’ data management capacities. The first pilot project will be deployed in the Western Mediterranean (Algeria, France, Italy, Malta, Morocco, Spain and Tunisia), the second in the Southeast Pacific with a specific cross-border exercise in the historic Bay of Guayaquil (Ecuador and Peru). Parallel training activities will also be organized with experts from Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Libya, Mauritania, Panama, Peru and Portugal.

Fishing harbor of Puerto Pizarro, Peru. Credit: Elisa Locci

Port of Algiers, Algeria, with ships in the distance. Credit: Leonid Andronov

By improving cross-border and transboundary cooperation where it already exists and promoting MSP processes in areas where it is yet to be put in place, MSPglobal will build on IOC-UNESCO’s leading work in the field. The objective will be to triple the marine area benefiting from MSP by 2030, and cover 30% of the world’s Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ).

It will also improve the understanding and governance of Large Marine Ecosystems (LMEs) and Regional Seas, which are transboundary in nature, as harbors of biodiversity and providers of ecosystem services, including food security, shoreline protection, carbon sequestration and storage as well as recreational opportunities.

The initiative will provide the context for participation of policy-makers, scientists, the private sector, civil society organizations and other stakeholders to improve governance at multiple levels and achieve an ecosystem-based approach in support of the Sustainable Blue Economy.

Different sets of activities will promote a participative process that balances both bottom-up and top-down approaches. Expert and institutional meetings, stakeholder visits and training courses, among others, will contribute to defining the contents of the MSPglobal international guidelines while raising awareness among stakeholders of the importance of their involvement and the benefits that they will reap from MSP processes.

Capacity-building session using the MSP Challenge board game during a training in Zagreb, Croatia. Credit: IOC-UNESCO

Stakeholder visit in Puerto Bolívar, Ecuador. Credit: IOC-UNESCO

Technical workshop during the third edition of the MSPforum in Vigo, Spain. Credit: IOC-UNESCO

The MSPglobal Initiative is designed to support the implementation of the Joint Roadmap to accelerate Marine/Maritime Spatial Planning processes worldwide, adopted by DG MARE and IOC-UNESCO as part of the conclusions of the 2nd International Conference on MSP, jointly organized in Paris in March 2017.

For more information on this project, please contact send an email or visit the project website.

Footnotes

Header: Similan Islands, Thailand. Credit: Parshina Marina

FootNotes

Header: Similan Islands, Thailand. Credit: Parshina Marina

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