Two perspectives on marine planning the first from Alec Taylor of WWF-UK on the need for more ambition, and the second illustrating the recognition being given to MSP on a global scale by the industry body the World Ocean Council.

1.  Marine planning needs to be more ambitious in 2016

Alec Taylor Blog WWF-UK – In November 2015, the Government laid before Parliament a report that you may have missed. No fanfare, no announcements, not a sniff of media coverage. The report sets out progress in delivering marine planning in English waters, six years since the Marine and Coastal Access Act came into force. Given that the marine environment has had no system of strategic planning at all, this is kind of a big deal (for some of us!). This report said little more than that some marine plans had been completed, some others were in preparation, and something will be done about the rest. To read it, you’d get no insight into the quality of those plans, or the process that created them. So as someone who has been through this process since the beginning, it’s perhaps a good time to reflect on where marine planning – alternatively known as Marine or Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) – has got to in England. We at WWF and Wildlife & Countryside Link have always been clear: marine planning has to be spatial, inclusive, ambitious and ecosystem based. It also needs to support the network of Marine Protected Areas we have long called for and that hundreds of MPs and Peers support. As a process it has to involve sea users and NGOs from the start, at the lowest practical level, and deliver enough to keep them interested to actually use the plan(s) in the long term.

To read more click here  LINK NOT WORKING

2.  World Ocean Council advances industry understanding and engagement on marine spatial planning

WOC Delivers Information, Analysis and Dialogue to Improve Interaction between the Ocean Business Community and Marine Planning Efforts.

4 February 2016   WOC   As Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) efforts continue to grow around the world, the World Ocean Council (WOC) is working to ensure that both MSP proponents and the ocean business community understand and address the need, value and opportunity for industry to be informed of, and engaged in, MSP.

Recent and upcoming WOC MSP program reports address:

• Marine Planning Management Practice and six key business interests regarding MSP, click here.
• Industry Perspectives on Marine Planning (coming soon)
• Multi-Sector Challenges and Opportunities for MSP in the North Sea (coming soon)
• Industry Comments on the US National Ocean Policy, click here.

As the international, multi-industry leadership alliance on Corporate Ocean Responsibility, the WOC is facilitating industry participation in marine-related programs and projects of the EU and other government and inter-governmental bodies. For example, the WOC is uniquely able to ensure industry engagement as a partner in Horizon 2020 consortia developing marine planning and Blue Growth projects.

Since 2010, WOC has conducted industry outreach on MSP; organized industry/MSP conferences and forums; undertaken reviews, case studies, and analysis of the industry/MSP interface; developed and distributed MSP information to the ocean business community; shared industry perspectives with marine planners; conducted pilot projects on industry engagement in specific MSP processes; built a network of ocean industries well-informed on marine planning; and brought together ocean industry sectors for dialogue on cross-sectoral conflicts in ocean use. Beginning in 2013, the WOC MSP program was assisted with support from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.

For more information see http://www.oceancouncil.org/site/planning.php.