Welcome to the Final Conference 2023
March, 15th- 17th, 2023
Marine environments and the blue economy have become the bearers of a tremendous promise of growth while the possibilities of terrestrial areas seem to be exhausted. At the same time, marine environments are already subject to intense and ever-increasing pressures (e.g. Halpern et al., 2008 and 2015) such as maritime traffic, increasing demand and land use changes in coastal areas, seabed mining, dredging or mining, fisheries, tourism, development of renewable energy, etc. Consequently, the oceans are today at the center of varied and complex interests, at the crossroads of biodiversity conservation, climate change regulation, economic development, food security, etc.
In this policy context, marine spatial planning (MSP) aims to reconcile human demands and conservation needs, and provides an attractive framework, through spatial zoning, for combining different uses of marine resources in the same area (Craig, 2012; Koehn et al., 2013; Ehler, 2014). MSP is often defined as "a practical way to create and establish a more rational use of marine space and interactions between its uses to balance development demands with the need to protect the environment, and to deliver social and economic outcomes in an open and planned manner" (Ehler & Douvere, 2009).
MSP remains a very active area of research because, while offering a promising vision for ocean management, it is not yet clear whether and how it can account for many of the typical characteristics of marine socio-ecosystems. After early implementation in northern countries, MSP is now being extended to tropical environments (Abidjan Agreement, African Union, and others) as part of a broader process to organize the use of marine environments and design modern forms of governance in these regions. A growing number of governments are preparing the first policy documents aimed at reconciling resource exploitation and environmental protection (e.g., Cape Verde's marine strategy, Brazil's integrated coastal zone management plan). To accompany this process, and to ensure that the exploitation of marine resources contributes significantly to the political priorities of poverty and hunger reduction (Spalding et al., 2013; Sale et al., 2014), there is a pressing need for research on the possible declensions of MSP in the tropics.
The conference will focus on tropical areas. We also welcome contributions related to other parts of the world but kindly invite speakers and participants to actively search for connections with, and insight relevant to, the tropics. The conference covers a broad range of themes, including the following themes. When submitting your abstract, please mention the theme(s) relevant to your contribution.
Artisanal fisheries are of key importance for tropical livelihoods. Artisanal fisheries are however hard to include in formal planning processes. Also, their (cumulative) impacts in the marine environment and other ocean users are difficult to assess. For this theme, we invite contributions from natural and social sciences, as well as interdisciplinary perspectives on whether and how artisanal fisheries are mapped in MSP.
- Decision support tools and geomatics
Like in most other policy domains, decision support tools (DST) have become important in MSP. Because of the complexity of the marine environment, both the natural and the human dimensions, as well as technical and mathematic complexities, DST are neither means for easy fixes nor a panacea. Contributions for this theme will address opportunities and challenges in the context of the rise of DST in MSP.
One of the biggest questions within MSP is how to spatially plan fisheries and manage their impacts on the marine ecosystem. Given the interconnectedness with on-land activities (e.g. processing) and with other food producing sectors (most notably feed for aquaculture), this challenge is even more complicated. In this theme, we welcome contributions addressing MSP from a food systems perspective.
Land-based activities impact the health of marine ecosystems, for example via runoff flows carrying sewage water, plastic, agricultural fertilizers, pesticides et cetera. While MSP does not necessarily address land-sea linkages directly, the mutual interactions and implications need to be identified, understood and managed. This theme puts land-sea interactions (LSI) at the centre of attention. We invite contributions from the natural and social sciences, and those highlighting the need for inter- and transdisciplinary approaches to understanding LSI.
Given the trans- and interdisciplinarity of MSP, there is a wide variety in types of knowledge and ways of knowing underpinning planning and policy processes. In this theme, we welcome contributions which aim to bridge and integrate knowledge stemming from different disciplinary approaches and different stakeholders. At the same time, we also invite contributions that highlight the limitations and challenges of knowledge sharing in MSP.
Contributors to this theme will ask questions grounded in critical theory, deconstructing processes of mapping, planning and policy-making to reveal what dominant assumptions and power relations are at work in MSP. We particularly invite contributions in which insights from critical study are used to formulate how scientists, policy-makers and stakeholders can learn and reflect on their role in MSP.
- Cultural dimensions in MSP
Socio-cultural values, such as related to cultural heritage or religious belief and experiences, remain underrepresented in MSP while people, individually and within communities, have deep-felt connections to the sea. In this theme, we welcome contributions which will enhance understanding of how to understand and integrate socio-cultural dimensions in MSP.
- New modes of public participation
Nowadays, public participation is considered key to planning processes. Being a relatively new policy domain, MSP is often presented as the perfect lab for including and engaging citizens in decision-making. In this theme, we welcome contributions which present results of testing out new modes of public participation, as well as perspectives on whether “new” is indeed new. We invite contributors to reflect on what marks change in the way citizens are participating in MSP, and by which means or methods such change can come about.
Increasing use of marine space results in an increase of underwater noise. While noise disturbance is increasingly considered, there is a need to move from sector-based impact studies to mapping cumulative impacts to inform MSP. In this theme, we invite both sector-based impact studies and integral, multi-disciplinary studies highlighting noise at sea.
While climate change is the number-one hot topic, just a few existing marine spatial plans consider climate change explicitly. This is a critical oversight in a rapidly changing world. This theme provides an opportunity to discuss the latest advances in the development of climate-smart MSP initiatives, highlight limitations and opportunities of using different approaches to integrate climate-information, and raise awareness of marine managers, planners, and policymakers on the key importance of the MSP-Climate change nexus.
- Restoration of coastal marine ecosystems and ecosystem design
Can or should MSP play a role in the ecosystem? In particular, we invite contributors to discuss the contributions and limitations of MSP to the restoration of coastal marine ecosystems.
- Marine Protected Areas challenges and MSP
MSP, like Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), is a policy instrument to implement ecosystem-based management. Increasingly, the two are connected. In this session, the main goal is to explore the ways in which knowledge-based MSP becomes a vehicle and a tool for the protection and recovery of ecosystems in a rapidly changing environment.
The everchanging dynamics of urban life complicate the interplay between “the city and the sea”, particularly in tropical areas. In this theme, we welcome contributions that in different ways engage with questions about urban resilience in coastal areas, and how this resilience is affected by, and affects, the (re-) distribution of marine activities (fishing, shipping and tourism) and coastal protection and conservation.
This conference is funded by Isblue1 , the PRCM2 and the PADDLE project
PADDLE project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, under Grant agreement no 734271). For more information, see the project's website.
1 Interdisciplinary School for the blue planet, which aims at creating a top-level graduate school in Marine Sciences and Technology in Western Brittany, France. ISblue gathers the best research teams and laboratories in the field of marine sciences and technology in order to meet the major ocean-related challenges of the 21th century. Read more about the research strategy of ISblue...
2 The Regional Partnership for Coastal and Marine Conservation (PRCM) is a coalition of actors working on West African coastal issues covering seven countries: Cape Verde, Gambia, Guinea Conakry, Guinea Bissau, Mauritania, Senegal and Sierra Leone.
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