Abstract
While the marine community has often talked about the importance of “marine governance” or “marine ecosystem-based management”, it is only during the past 10-12 years that these concepts have been turned into operational activities some of which have become known as “marine spatial planning” or MSP. Pioneered in Western Europe through the efforts of the United Kingdom, belgium, the Nether-lands, and Germany, MSP activities have spread to about 40 coun-tries throughout the world. Nine countries now have government-approved marine spatial plans covering their exclusive economic zones or territorial seas, and several of these are in their second or third generation of plan development and implementation.
But how do we know if these plans are “successful”? And what does “success” mean? How do we measure it? Are the plans achieving their goals and objectives. Do the plans have political and public support? Have they achieved real results?While the idea of MSP is still in its early life stage and many tangible results could take 5-15 years to be realized, it’s not too early to think about evaluating the results of MSP.
This new guide from IOC’s Marine Spatial Planning Initiative is an attempt to advance thinking within the international MSP community about undertaking this important step toward monitoring and evalu-ating the performance of marine spatial plans