News and Events
MSP4BIO Delivers Innovative Solutions for Biodiversity-Centered Maritime Spatial Planning Across Europe
Authors:
Margarita Stancheva, Center for Coastal and Marine Studies – CCMS
Agnese Cosulich, Sustainable Projects GmbH – s.Pro
As European countries move forward with Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP), one challenge remains consistent: how to effectively protect and restore biodiversity while managing the many demands on our marine spaces. MSP4BIO is tackling this head-on with innovative solutions that bridge the gap between theory and practice — ensuring that biodiversity becomes a core element of MSP across Europe.
One Goal, Many Contexts
EU Member States are at different stages of MSP development. Plans vary in scope—national, regional, and transboundary—and address a broad mix of social, economic, and environmental priorities. Recognising this diversity, MSP4BIO is working in six real-world test sites across the Baltic Sea, North Sea, Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, and Black Sea. These sites reflect a wide range of planning, challenges and offer opportunities to develop and test solutions that are adaptable and scalable across Europe and beyond.
Read the full Blog Post on the MSP4BIO website!
Want to dive deeper into the solutions?
👉 Download the full report here!
👉 Stay tuned and follow us on LinkedIn for more updates from MSP4BIO as we shape the future of marine spatial planning — where biodiversity and human activity go hand in hand.
Insights from a role-playing game on MPA management
During the UN Ocean Decade Conference in Barcelona, Spain from 10-12 April 2024, a unique approach to tackling the complex challenges of marine protection was unveiled – a role-playing game where participants stepped into the shoes of various stakeholders to grapple with real-world dilemmas affecting the management of marine protected areas (MPAs).
Our colleague Kemal Pınarbaşı, leading the MSP4BIO’s policy coherence analysis work as well as being the test site leader in the project for the Baltic Sea, explain in detail at the origins and impact of this initiative.
Read the full interview with Kemal on the Protect Baltic website!
Read more: Insights from a role-playing game on MPA management
MSP4BIO FOURTH COP INTERACTION IN THE BLACK SEA!
The Western Black Sea Fourth CoP (Community of Practice) Interaction Workshop "Presentation and validation the draft of the MSP4BIO “Ecological and Socio-Economic (ESE) Management Framework" was conducted virtually on 30 July, 2024 and hosted by CCMS. The Black Sea test site is a cross-border area between Cape Tuzla in Romania and Cape Kaliakra in Bulgaria, for more details follow the MSP4BIO website: https://msp4bio.eu/western-black-sea-test-site-bulgaria/
and https://msp4bio.eu/western-black-sea-test-site-romania/
On the workshop, the CCMS team presented the MSP4BIO developments and Decision Support Tools (DSTs), namely the Ecological and Socio-Economic (ESE) Management Framework for better integration of biodiversity and Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) dimensions, as well as demonstrated the online version of the ESE Platform. Participants and key stakeholders from Bulgaria, Romania, UK and Belgium attended the workshop, and participated actively in the discussion.
The ESE framework consists of a methodological guidance that shall help prioritizing marine protection in MSP through several methodological steps, and integrating social, economic, and ecological considerations. In practice, it is a document & web-based step-by-step guidance that enables users to identify their management needs using a portfolio of questions and offers a range of answers to address them.
In order to collect stakeholder feedbacks on the ESE initial draft, it was suggested to participants to fill an online Google form questionnaire. Results will be used to fine tune and consolidate the ESE framework implementation.
Stay tuned for more updates and insights: https://msp4bio.eu/
MSP4BIO at the IV Webinars of the MED-MSP-CoP: Sharing knowledge as key for advancing MSP practice
On February 13th, Margarita Stancheva (CCMS) presented the MSP4BIO project at one of the technical webinars that MED-MSP-CoP organises on a regular basis.
The aim of these webinars is to:
• Disseminate valuable practices on MSP in the Mediterranean
• Illustrate how such experiences tackle some of the key challenges addressed by the MED-MSP-CoP, including “MSP for MPAs” and “MSP as key enabler for SBE strategies and initiatives”
• Provide a regular opportunity for an open discussion on MSP-related issues of common interest for the MED-MSP-CoP experts
• Invite any other experts in participating to the discussion and more in general to join the MED-MSP-CoP.
In this event, several points to be capitalised were highlighted, such as:
- MSP4BIO process of CoPs engagement – a series of interactions to facilitate exchange, build ownership and ensuring uptake of developed MSP4BIO tools in the test areas and beyond, keep their interest and show the added value of being a CoP member.
- SeaSketch tool and participatory mapping survey for trade-off analysis – the step-by step methodology has the potential to be replicated/adapted and to enhance stakeholder interest, a robust platform, leading to important discussions and diverse feedback from the CoP members.
You can access the full presentation on the MSP4BIO website!