Stakeholder Engagement and Sustainability in Maritime Spatial Planning

Draft version

Draft

Abstract

Maritime Spatial Planning is a fundamental tool for delivering an ecosystem approach and for adding value to existing management measures for the marine environment. From marine and coastal areas to open-ocean regions, Marine Spatial Planning is being developed worldwide to promote sustainable ocean management and governance. In recent years, Marine Spatial Planning has globally widespread and has gained importance in the scientific and policy fields resulting in significant progress by governments .

The definition of sustainability was developed in response to stakeholder demands. One of the key mechanisms for engaging stakeholders is sustainability disclosure and how industries and companies approach this matter. Taking into consideration that Marine Spatial Planning plans need to be evaluated periodically, from outcomes to participation processes, and evaluation of these aspects is needed .

Therefore, the purpose of this article is to assess the identification and understanding of different stakeholders, their practices, expectations, and interests for economic and environmental resources in Marine Spatial Planning projects, and how the involvement of stakeholders is a key factor for a sustainable successful management regime in the marine environment. Moreover, the article will focus on different types and stages of stakeholder participation in Marine Spatial Planning processes and the analysis of stakeholders for a sustainable way of stakeholder engagement.

Introduction

Since the decade of the 80s, significant progress has been made by governments in how to face MSP. Nowadays, it is under investigation and development in around 70 countries. These are six continents and four oceans. Despite its acceptance, spread use, development, and implementation of MSP it still faces theoretical and practical challenges

The main questions here are: What is Maritime Spatial Planning? What are its benefits? How is MSP structured?

What is Maritime Spatial Planning?

Maritime Spatial Planning is the process of analyzing and allocating the spatial and temporal distribution of human activities in marine areas to achieve ecological, economic, and social objectives that are usually specified through a political process . In summary, MSP is a way to organize the use of the ocean space and the interactions between and the marine environment. Among these human uses, it is possible to find fisheries, aquaculture, shipping, tourism, renewable energy production, and marine mining. MSP is a continuous process that needs to be regularly funded and adapted to achieve the expected goal and one that requires the engagement of multiple actors and stakeholders at various governmental and societal levels due to the nature of this planning process. The concept of MSP emerged in the context of marine conservation planning, dating back to the 1980s. Some suggest the marine conservation of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park in Australia. However, in the most recent years, there has been a change toward an increasing need to manage conflicting maritime uses .

Annotated Bibliography

The following list provides resources for further research on Maritime Spatial planning and Stakeholder Engagement

• Q. Hanich, PhD / Associate Professor (2008): Marine Policy: Journal

- Marine Policy is the leading journal of ocean policy studies. It offers researchers, analysts and policy makers a unique combination of analyses in the principal social science disciplines relevant to the formulation of marine policy.

• Charles Ehler and Fanny Douvere (2009): Marine Spatial Planning: A Step-by-step Approach

- This guide is primarily intended for professionals responsible for the planning and management of marine areas and their resources. It is especially targeted to situations in which time, finances, information and other resources are Iimited.

• J. Chen, B. Glavovic, T. F. Smith (2020): Ocean and Coastal Management

- Ocean & Coastal Management is the leading international journal dedicated to the study of all aspects of ocean and coastal management from the global to local levels.

• Michele Quesada-Silva,*, Alejandro Iglesias-Campos, Alexander Turra, Juan L. Suárez-de Vivero (2020): Stakeholder Participation Assessment Framework (SPAF): A theory-based strategy to plan and evaluate marine spatial planning participatory processes

- This study propose an assessment for the analysis of SPAF in order to support assessment of consequences related to the participatory strategies.

• David Christopher Sprengel and Timo Busch (2010): Stakeholder Engagement and Environmental Strategy – the Case of Climate Change

- This study investigates the role of the sources of stakeholder pressures and additional contextual factors for choosing an environmental strategy.

• Jon Day (2008): The need and practice of monitoring, evaluating and adapting marine planning and management

- This article discusses key aspects of effective monitoring and evaluation, and summarises lessons learned from over two decades of adaptive management.

• Xander Keijser, Malena Ripken, Igor Mayer and Harald Warmelink (2018): Stakeholder Engagement in Maritime Spatial Planning: The Efficacy of a Serious Game Approach

- This article covers the complexity of stakeholder engagement in MSP and analyses the diveristy and unfamiliarity of some of these stakeholders with MSP and its potential impact.