Solutions to the conflicts of ocean uses: Accelerate marine spatial planning in the Western Pacific

The increasing use of marine resources leads to growing pressures and impacts on marine environment. The increasing conflicts among users and marine environment have become a significant management challenge, compromising the sustainable provisioning of ecosystem services.

Marine spatial planning (MSP) is a multi-sectoral participatory process and methodology for planning and management of ocean and coastal zones. The MSP has rapidly become a commonly accepted approach to addressing conflicts among users and marine spaces. To accelerate its implementation, IOC/UNESCO and the EU’s Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (DG MARE) produced the “MSPglobal International Guide on Marine/Maritime Spatial Planning” to assist governments, partners and practitioners in their MSP processes.

This incubator will gather MSP practitioners from countries in the region, brief on the MSP global movement and the International Guide, share ideas and perspectives and eventually come up with an action plan to further advance MSP process in the region.