Naples Declaration News
2020
January
Have you missed MSP news from the past two weeks? Don't worry, it is possible to catch up thanks to our bi-weekly review. Here you can find a selection of some of the most relevant news from the past two weeks:
- Focus on country MSP
- Project updates
- Call for content
- Ocean and wildlife protection
- How to fight marine litter in the Mediterranean Sea
- A new vision for the Ocean | World Economic Forum
Have a pleasant weekend and see you soon for more MSP news in a nutshell!
The PHAROS4MPAs´ project page on our platform has been updated. The project published seven recommendations and policy briefs on the following sectors: aquaculture, cruise, leisure boating, maritime transport, offshore wind energy, recreational fisheries and small-scale fisheries. The aim of these final deliverables is to provide advice on how the environmental impact of seven sectors can be prevented or minimized.
Find all these final deliverables here as well as an online tool to help you in receiving the recommendations that concern you.
The Biodiversity Protection Community projects, co-financed by the Interreg-Med Programme, just published a report “Mediterranean Biodiversity and Marine Litter: An interaction knowledge base” to help stakeholders and policymakers find a way to fight marine litter in the Mediterranean Sea.
Find the report and more information about the Biodiversity Protection Community here.
Last December the Welsh Government published new documents to improve understanding of the recently adopted Welsh National Marine Plan (12/11/2019). You can now find:
- An overview of the WNMP, which summarises the plan;
- A “Vision, objectives and policies” document, which summarise WNMP policies;
- An animation about the marine plan on the YouTube Channel of the Welsh Government;
- A report about sustainability appraisal post adoption of the WNMP.
For more information about this National Marine Plan, see the website of the Welsh Government.
The consultation period of the Irish draft National Marine Planning Framework (NMPF) has been extended to Thursday 9th April at 15:00.
This is Ireland´s first marine planning framework, public events are being held to promote awareness and facilitate public and stakeholder participation on the draft NMPF, the first event will take place on Wednesday 12th February in the Arklow Bay Hotel from 18:00 to 20:00.
For more information and submissions, see the page of the Public consultation on the Draft NMPF.
The Journal of Ocean Technology, which is a scientific publication of the Fisheries and Marine Institute of Memorial University of Newfoundland in Canada, is launching a call for content. The subject of this summer issue will focus on Marine Spatial Planning. The Journal wants an international perspective on the subject, therefore all technical papers, essays and short articles concerning this issue are welcomed.
Deadline:
- Technical paper submissions: 21 February 2020;
- Expression of interest for essays or short articles: 21 February 2020 (for submission of materials: April 24, 2020).
For more information about submission see the call description.
The PHAROS4MPAs project recently published seven recommendations and policy briefs concerning offshore windfarms, maritime traffic and ports, cruise and super yachts, leisure boating, recreational fisheries, aquaculture and small-scale fisheries. Their aims are to explain how the environmental impacts of those seven sectors can be prevented or minimized.
The end of 2019 was marked by the dissemination of these reports to MSP national authorities during the MSP Global Forum held in Riga. MPAs were reaffirmed as being a critical part of the MSP approach.
Find these recommendations on the Project page and soon in the Practices database of our platform!
Have you missed MSP news from the past couple of weeks? Don't worry, it is possible to catch up thanks to our bi-weekly review. Here you can find a selection of some of the most relevant news from the past few weeks:
- Countries' recent progress in MSP
-
Importance of the joint creation of ICZM and MSP
Have a pleasant weekend and see you soon for more MSP news in a nutshell!
The Coastal Portal is an initiative to provide users with clear access to information and data related to the functions and activities that take place in the Belgian part of the North Sea and the Belgian coastal zone. Last week this portal updated its maps meaning that they are now fully up to date with the new and second marine spatial plan (MSP) for the Belgian part of the North Sea. Changes and novelties are available here as well as the two new maps about open space and salinization.
2019
December
The vision phase of the Maritime Spatial Plan in Finland is in progress, with work launched in October 2019. A national workshop and four regional workshops on sustainable use of the seas were held, their main goals were to analyse synergies and conflicts between different activities in order to guide and direct stakeholders and planners involved in MSP. This phase will run until March 2020.
Find more information on the website of MSP in Finland.
The 21st meeting of the contracting parties to the Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment and the Coastal Region of the Mediterranean (the Barcelona Convention) took place in Naples on 4th December 2019. The 10th and 11th points of the Declaration reaffirm the importance of the joint creation of Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) and Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) in order to promote sustainable and synergic uses of marine and coastal areas and resources, as well as to advance the green transition.
During the session, Sergio Costa, Minister of Environment, Land and Sea, Italy, said that the Naples Ministerial Declaration is “not just a policy document, but a manifesto that is oriented towards actions that puts countries on track to tackling common challenges.”
The Scottish National Marine Plan, which was published in 2015, continues to be implemented. It established the strategic planning framework for the sustainable use of Scotland’s marine resources.
With respect to this Marine Scotland recently published a Sectoral Marine Plan for Offshore Wind Energy in Scottish Territorial Waters. This sectoral plan, put out on 18 December 2019, is now under public consultation until 25 March 2020.
Moreover, eleven Scottish Marine Regions have been created, with the Shetland Isles being one of the first two regions to prepare a regional marine planning. The draft Shetland Islands Regional Marine Plan (SIRMP) is under public consultation since 9 September 2019 until 30 December 2019. It is expected to be finalized in 2020, for adoption by Scottish Ministers.
On the 17th December 2019 the Marine and Water Authority of Sweden proposed, for the first time, the final version of its MSP to the government. Sweden put forward three maritime spatial plans, one for the Gulf of Bothnia, one for the Baltic Sea and one for the North Sea.
The MSP covers 123,000 square kilometres, about the same size as a quarter of Sweden's land area, and takes in the entire economic zone and most of the territorial sea. The proposal is available here in Swedish.
Have you missed MSP news from this week? Don't worry, it is possible to catch up thanks to our weekly review. Here you can find a selection of some of the most relevant news from this week:
- Canary Islands, Azores, and Madeira working on cross-border planning
- North Sea jointly tackling the new EU offshore renewable objectives
- MSP opportunities in Italy
- Issues of integration around the Irish Marine Plan
Have a pleasant weekend and see you next year for more MSP news in a nutshell!
The European MSP Platform´s North Sea MSP expert Patrycja Enet will attend the final conference of the SEANSE project in Rotterdam the 9-10 January 2020.
She can be contacted through her email northsea@msp-platform.eu.
The Maritime Spatial Planning Forum - Global Meets Regional - took place from the 19th to the 21st November 2019 in Riga, Latvia. It was a joint event for the 4th International MSP forum, 3rd Baltic MSP Forum, as well as the final conference of the Pan Baltic Scope project. The focus was on global and regional MSP topics and the results of the Pan Baltic Scope project. Key-note speeches, plenaries and workshops all took place over the three days, you can find the results of these activities in the event page.
The forum was jointly organised by UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, VASAB, Pan Baltic Scope and the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries.
Have you missed MSP news from this week? Don't worry, it is possible to catch up thanks to our weekly review. Here you can find a selection of some of the most relevant news from this week:
- 450 GW of offshore wind for Europe by 2050!
- Europe's Wind Industry Needs More Sea Space - Marine Link
- EU goals for 450 GW of offshore wind are achievable, says WindEurope - New Europe
- 450 GW possible in Europe with grid investment and spatial planning - Riviera Maritime Media
- Irish Draft National Marine Planning Framework published
- Maritime Spatial Planning Forum in Riga
- Only 1.8% of EU MPAs with management plans!
Have a pleasant weekend and see you soon for more MSP news in a nutshell!
A new report by WindEurope, a non-profit association, shows that it is feasible to deploy 450 GW of offshore wind energy capacity. The report "Our energy, our future" highlights the fact that Europe can go carbon-neutral by 2050, as per European Commission plans. With currently 20 GW of offshore wind energy being produced, Europe could reach its goals through the use of only 3% of European sea space, allowing for provision of 30% of Europe´s electricity needs. This increase could create thousands of jobs in Europe, whilst also providing clean power and cheap electricity for the population. The reports states that to reach this target, countries must work together on their maritime spatial planning.
For more information see the report of WindEurope, and watch the video on their website.
November
This is the main take-away of the report "Protecting our ocean: Europe's challenges to meet the 2020 deadlines". According to the Convention on Biological Diversity Aichi target 11 and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 14, the European Union should be effectively protecting at least 10% of its marine and coastal areas before the end of 2020. However, the latest report from the WWF and Sky Ocean Rescue warns European Member States, as 12.4% of the EU marine area is considered under Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), but only 1.8% of those have a real and effective management plan.
Moreover, according to the report, current MPA zones do not represent the wider marine habitat, and the monitoring of the MPAs could be improved as many MPAs are not close to one another other and there is no consideration of the moving of species between the different areas.
The report urges European Member States to meet its commitments.
The Co-Evolve project ended in October 2019 with the final project meeting in Kalva (Greece) on 2-3 October 2019. The Co-Evolve4BG project started last September and continues the work. The new project will continue the analysis of the co-evolution of human activities and natural systems in touristic coastal areas in the Mediterranean, it will extend its field of action to Southern and Eastern Mediterranean areas.
The latest version of the Joint Action Plan (JAP) - on Mediterranean Coasts´ adaptation to climate change - of the Bologna Charter is available online. The aim of the JAP is to protect Mediterranean coasts from coastal erosion and improve coastal resilience to climate change.
The first Welsh National Marine Plan was published on 12 November 2019. It sets out Welsh policy for the next 20 years for the sustainable use of their seas.
Find the plan as well as related documents and information here.
Ministers Eoghan Murphy and Damien English have published the Irish Draft National Marine Planning Framework (NMPF) for public consultation.
The Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government invites submissions on the Draft NMPF. The consultation period closes at 12:00 noon on 28th February 2020.
See all information, including about the regional public events being held to promote awareness and facilitate public and stakeholder participation on the Draft NMPF, here.
The European MSP Platform´s Baltic Sea MSP expert, Kristina Veidemane, will be present at the Maritime Spatial Planning Forum “Global meets regional” held in Riga from 19th - 21st Nov 2019.
She will be an invited speaker to the session "What are the Success Factors and Mechanisms for Cross-Border Cooperation in Achieving Coherent MSP?" on the 20th.
She can be contacted through her email balticsea@msp-platform.eu
The Strategic Environmental Assessment North Seas Energy (SEANSE) project has produced several new results. This includes a baseline study on SEA as well as a data and gap analysis with annex including data layers.
Find these documents as well as more information on the project on this page.