With the aim to improve cross-border and transboundary cooperation for the development of Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) and Sustainable Blue Economy strategies, the MSPglobal Initiative is launching four technical reports on current and potential future conditions in the areas covered by its two pilot projects.
Successful marine management needs planners and managers who understand and work with the sea’s diversity in space and time. These new reports aim to assist the MSPglobal beneficiary countries in developing approaches, tools and actions at regional level to contribute to a coherent ecosystem-based MSP process, based on an analysis of existing conditions within the pilot project areas in the Western Mediterranean and Southeast Pacific.
More specifically, the reports focus on:
Current conditions:
- Identifying ocean governance frameworks
- Mapping ecological, environmental and oceanographic conditions
- Mapping human activities and uses
- Identifying current conflicts and compatibilities
Future conditions and scenarios:
Identifying possible alternative outcomes for the planning area through the development of scenarios:
- Trend scenario: current conditions continue without new planning and management interventions and sectors develop according to their past and present trends, with conflicts expected to arise in the busiest areas
- Conservationist scenario: conservation is the priority, most impacting activities are reduced and the development of new activities is based on ecological sustainability factors
- Integrated scenario: integrated planning and management approaches stimulate the application of Sustainable Blue Economy strategies at regional level and multi-uses is a priority led by sustainability objectives, including social ones
Western Mediterranean:
The pilot project in the Western Mediterranean is being implemented in seven countries – Algeria, France, Italy, Malta, Morocco, Spain and Tunisia – an area that encompasses diverse coastal and marine ecosystems. In fact, it hosts the highest rate of the Mediterranean’s well-documented forms of life (87%) and many emblematic species of particular conservation interest. However, various environment-use and use-use conflicts threaten this rich biodiversity, such as aquaculture vs. marine protected areas or maritime traffic vs. conservation of cetaceans.
The three scenarios focus on three cross-border sub-regions: the Strait of Gibraltar, the Gulf of Lion and the Strait of Sicily.
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Technical Report on Current Conditions and Compatibility of Maritime Uses in the Western Mediterranean
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Technical Report on Future Conditions and Scenarios for MSP and Sustainable Blue Economy Opportunities in the Western Mediterranean
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Southeast Pacific:
The pilot project in the Southeast Pacific covers a total marine area of about 39,000 km2 in the Gulf of Guayaquil between Ecuador and Peru and seeks to support binational initiatives of social, economic and environmental importance. The gulf is the largest estuary on the Pacific coast of South America, with a mixture of marine and fluvial environment and most notably mangroves. In the absence of proper multi-sectoral and cross-border planning, conflicts such as fisheries vs. maritime transport or tourism vs. oil and gas are growing.
The three scenarios set the stage for both countries to initiate a discussion on their preferred vision for the future of the region, in line with their peace agreement signed in 1998 and existing national policies.
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Technical Report on Current Conditions and Compatibility of Maritime Uses in the Gulf of Guayaquil
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Technical Report on Future Conditions and Scenarios for MSP and Sustainable Blue Economy Opportunities in the Gulf of Guayaquil
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By improving mutual understanding between bordering Member States of their respective processes, including different objectives, priorities and activities, MSPglobal provides the basis for the development of a pre-planning phase of transboundary MSP in the Western Mediterranean and Southeast Pacific, as part of the roadmap for transboundary MSP and Sustainable Blue Economy to be drawn up in the two regions.
These technical reports were developed by MSPglobal, a joint initiative between UNESCO’s Intergovernmental oceanographic Commission (IOC-UNESCO) and the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (DG MARE), co-funded by the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) of the European Union.
RELATED LINKS:
MSPglobal pilot project in the Southeast Pacific
MSPglobal pilot project in the West Mediterranean
CONTACT:
MSPglobal.comm@unesco.org