MSP can help solve conflicts between maritime activities

Crowded oceans, polluted seas, and marine resources at risk—this is the context from which Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) emerged, with the ambitious goal of resolving some of the challenges our blue planet is facing: in other words, to balance the demand for development and the need to protect marine ecosystems.

Maritime spatial planning is a multidisciplinary planning tool, supporting both maritime economic development and environmental conservation, while seeking to resolve and prevent conflicts among maritime activities or with the ecosystem. It is a process of analysing and allocating the spatial and temporal distribution of human activities in marine areas, to achieve ecological, economic, and social objectives. It is a public and a political process, combining bottom-up and top-down approaches, and can extend from local to transnational scales (IOC-UNESCO, 2009). Through a continuous and iterative process, MSP goes through several steps. This process is illustrated in Figure 1 proposed by the UNESCO-IOC’s step by step approach (2009):

All EU members are obliged to produce maritime spatial plans

At a European level, a series of strategies and policies led to the establishment of the MSP Framework, namely the Integrated Maritime Policy (2007), the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (2008), the BIue Growth Strategy (2012) and finally the Maritime Spatial Planning Directive (2014). These set the stage for the development of plans across Europe (a legal requirement for Member States). Today, Member States are not all at the same level in terms of designing and adopting their maritime spatial plans, and understandably so. Variations in governance schemes, sea basin specificities, marine space extent, and transboundary collaboration mechanisms explain the difference (Figure 2).

In 2017, the Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (DG MARE) and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO (IOC-UNESCO) joined their efforts to advance marine spatial planning globally, through the implementation of the MSProadmap. The first MSProadmap (2017-2022) gave birth to the MSPglobal initiative and the International MSPforum. The updated MSProadmap (2022-2027) focuses on six priority areas, centred around people and the ocean, underlining the beneficiaries of MSP. The priority areas consist of three cross cutting pillars (knowledge support, capacity development and awareness, transboundary cooperation) and three thematic pillars (climate-smart MSP, marine protection and restoration and sustainable blue economy).

Transboundary MSP: A Baltic perspective on collaboration between countries

Transboundary collaboration is an essential element of MSP processes and is in fact laid down in EU law. The EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region (BSR) was the first regional strategy that integrated “Save the sea” as one of its core objectives with the aim of developing a common approach for T (transboundary) MSP in the Baltic Sea Region. The Baltic Sea has since developed extensive experience in this area particularly because most of its coastal countries are EU Member States and abide by the same regulations and follow the same directives and legal frameworks.

In addition, formal institutional collaboration is driven by two regional intergovernmental organizations, the Helsinki Commission (HELCOM), and Vision and Strategies around the Baltic Sea (VASAB). In 2010, the HELCOM-VASAB MSP Working Group was established to support the implementation of MSP in the Baltic Sea Region. To support this, the Pan Baltic Scope project (2015-2017) brought together eight MSP planning authorities in the Baltic Sea Region with the objective to achieve coherent MSP and build lasting macro regional mechanisms for cross-border cooperation. The project identified a set of challenges to and enablers of the implementation of MSP processes when multiple countries’ planning authorities are involved.

The main challenges identified by project partners were differing national interests and priorities, countries being at different stages of the planning process, changes in governments, a lack of clear definitions of MSP principles to work with, a lack of time or specificity to tackle certain issues, a low level of stakeholder involvement which limits the input needed in the proper functioning of the planning process. As for the enabling factors, clear communication and dialogue is deemed essential (particularly considering language barriers), identifying clear and concrete methods and tools for working together, financing to maintain a strong cooperation, and collaboration between national authorities, and finally, a strong, clear, and continuous stakeholder involvement practice.

International MSP guidelines to improve cross-border collaboration

The MSPglobal initiative was launched in 2018 to develop international guidelines on MSP in support of the sustainable blue economy, to improve cross-border and transboundary cooperation in areas where it exists, and to promote MSP processes in areas where it is yet to be put in place. These objectives were achieved through several actions, including performing two pilot regional projects

(West Mediterranean and Southeast Pacific), the development of storytelling tools, organization of national trainings on sustainable blue economy, publication of several studies and guidebooks relating to coastal management and MSP/ Blue economy. The ultimate goal is to triple the marine area benefiting from MSP by 2030.

The International MSP forum, over the past few years, has been a space to share valuable experiences and lessons related to MSP. Until now five fora have been organized, engaging hundreds of participants

Knowledge support at the 5th International MSP forum

“Data in MSP is key.” Transitioning from “data” to “knowledge” is a multilayered process as the world of knowledge has multiple dimensions and considerations. Who possesses and produces knowledge? Under which format? How is knowledge shared? With whom? When is knowledge shared, and at what stages of the planning process? What are the challenges facing member states and policy makers? These were some of the questions Ms Andrea Morf (Nordregio) aimed to answer in the first session of the MSP forum, sharing experiences from the Baltic and North Sea. Production—or co-creation—of knowledge is the collaborative work of scientists, practitioners, marine planners, and even artists and other creative types. Bridging the science-policy gap entails various types of interactions, from basic or applied research to consultancy and advisory services, all the way to concrete policy design and management. The production process needs to consider the quality, interoperability, and reliability of the content, in anticipation of the sharing procedure.

From the experience in the South-West Baltic between Sweden and Poland, learning and problem-solving are positive by-products of data sharing. In the field of fisheries, visualizing fishing efforts through heat maps, and crossing national interests with the Common Fisheries Policy, enabled policy solutions for shared fishing grounds to be devised.

In the case of shipping and offshore wind farms, the Swedish-Polish mapping exercise helped solve conflicts, whereby Poland adapted their wind farm areas to accommodate passenger ferry corridors. In transboundary contexts, knowledge provision differs depending on the planning systems. Governments appoint different MSP authorities, produce data for different purposes, and the coordination of data is not homogenous. Through multiple learning loops, a wide array of methods, tools and modelling exercises are being developed throughout the planning cycle to accommodate these differences.

The main challenges identified were gaps in knowledge on certain topics (such as the social dimension), fragmentation of knowledge production, quality and reliability of data, spatial/temporal resolution of data, communication, and confusion about some terminologies, knowledge asymmetries among stakeholders etc. In the end, Ms Morf mentioned a number of projects and initiatives which contribute to the harmonisation of knowledge in MSP, through funding, capacity building and awareness raising. The round table discussions were a forum for MSP experts from around the world to share their personal experience and recommendations.

with different backgrounds and interests related to MSP, coming from over 50 different countries. The latest forum took place on 21 November 2022 in Barcelona, after a two-year break caused by the pandemic. The interactive and informal setup of the MSPforum provided a platform for exchange and debate between different MSP actors. Round tables, dialogues and panels shaped this event, while keeping the discussion linked to the six cross cutting and thematic pillars. The report will soon be available on the MSPglobal website.

Conference on MSP was a useful networking event for practitioners

The 3rd MSP international conference took place back-to-back with the MSPforum on 22-23 November 2022, and also aimed to reflect the six priority areas of the MSProadmap. The conference offered panel discussions, e-poster presentations, and speakers used sli.do to interact with the large number of participants throughout the two days. The conference was a unique opportunity to gather MSP practitioners from all over the world to share their experiences and exchange best practices related to MSP. A networking opportunity among peers, but also between countries sharing marine space, economic priorities, and potentially marine spatial plans.

For more information:

Vera B. NOON

Marine Spatial PlanningArchitecture

Ocean Literacy & Marine Policy @ACTeon

Tel.: +33 7 84543589, +39 339 3496771 vera.b.n@hotmail.com

Further reading: MSP in a nutshell video; Marine Spatial Planning: A step by step approach toward ecosystem based management; MSPglobal International Guide on Marine/Maritime Spatial Planning.