Event 1st Joint Meeting

SEAPLANSPACE 1^st Joint Meeting – Marine spatial planning instruments for sustainable marine governance

On the 18 of October 2018 at the University of Gdańsk took place the SEAPLANSPACE 1^st Joint Meeting ‘Marine spatial planning instruments for sustainable marine governance’. SEAPLANSPACE Project is financed by the Interreg South Baltic Programme 2014-2020. The meeting consisted of  three sessions: Challenges of the Marine Spatial Planning, Marine governance instruments and The SEAPLANSPACE Training. Each of the sessions presented crucial issues concerning marine spatial planning and concluded with a discussion.

The aim of the SEAPLANSPACE Project is to boost human resource capacity in marine spatial planning (MSP) and increase the number of people who understand the impact and influence of sustainable marine governance in their daily work related to the Blue Growth.  This will be achieved by cross-border training and networking. The Project targets people engaged in developing the MSP cooperation of local/regional authorities, universities, entrepreneurs and other stakeholders.

During the SEAPLANSPACE  1^st Joint Meeting the European MSP Platform presented its key objectives. The European MSP Platform provides services on MSP knowledge and experience sharing to foster implementation of MSP in Europe and supported SEAPLANSPACE Project.

Thus, there are advantages of networking and cooperation in MSP to achieve sustainable marine governance. Key benefits of cross-boarder cooperation in development of MSP plan:

• shared knowledge,
• ecological considerations done from a more holistic perspective,
• interest conflicts and subsequent solutions easier to identify.

MSP requires stakeholder participation for learning, sharing and developing knowledge, improving the legitimacy of decision-making, addressing value conflicts. The task of stakeholder involvement needs political decisions, resources, capacity building and time.

Relating to the role of knowledge transfer, best practices, continuous funding and integration of the MSP plans into the existing national and/or regional spatial planning and management system is crucial for sustainable marine governance.

Project durability can be achieved by connecting people and institutions. SEAPLANSPACE Portal allows bringing together supply and demand side of the project target groups. Training – learning – employability – jobs referring to Blue Growth and MSP. Once launched, the SEAPLANSPACE Portal will be a facility for capacity building and lifelong learning.

Taking into account all the conclusions of the SEAPLANSPACE 1^st Joint Meeting it is important to emphasise that MSP is a complex stakeholder’s driven process.

Let’s become part of the blue change in the South Baltic Sea