Marine Spatial Planning – Unlocking Benefits Beyond Boundaries

A healthy ocean is critical to address the triple challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution. This event will discuss marine and coastal spatial planning -- one tool that can help governments better manage these challenges in a collaborative way, and better attract private investment. For governments, marine and coastal policy—the rules that govern who gets to do what, where, and how in the ocean and on the coast—poses a unique challenge, one that requires balancing age-old activities and professions (like artisanal or industrial fishing, tourism, and shipping), with new ones (like offshore renewable energy generation, desalination, and marine bio-prospecting). Designing and implementing policies in an equitable manner is difficult under any circumstances, but especially in the ocean, where our knowledge of natural processes and dynamics is still extremely limited.

Marine and coastal spatial planning is one tool that can help to better account for ocean resources across ecosystems, sectors, and infrastructure types. It can also help improve our understanding of the ways in which climate change affects the ocean, to better reduce the impacts and improve the profitability of investments, unlocking the possibility of more finance for climate and nature goals. For example, a plan can help optimize the use of marine areas while allowing for economic development. This could include, for instance, increased protection for areas of maximum carbon sequestration, such as mangroves and seagrasses, to help meet Nationally Determined Contribution commitments.

This event will present experiences, lessons, and ambitions on using marine spatial planning to unlock opportunities and investments from around the world.