Four Outermost Regions Launch a New Cooperation Project to Advance Regional Maritime Spatial Planning

• The Azores, Madeira, Canary Islands and French Guiana, with the support of their Member States national authorities (Portugal, Spain and France), joined cooperative efforts to support the implementation of the European Maritime Spatial Planning Directive in their maritime waters
• The objective is to advance in the implementation of Maritime Spatial Planning processes and contribute to the development and improvement of marine spatial planning plans in the Macaronesia Region and French Guiana
• The Consortium, with 12 partners, involve the competent authorities in Maritime Spatial Planning and partners with scientific and technical expertise

?The MSP-OR project (Advancing Maritime Spatial Planning in Outermost Regions), which has a total budget of 1,906,307.55€, 80% co-funded by the European Commission, started on September 2021 and will be implemented until August 2024. The main objective of the project is to support MSP competent authorities in Portugal (Azores and Madeira) and Spain (Canary Islands) in advancing the implementation of their MSP processes, launched with the previous MarSP project; and in France (French Guiana) advancing with knowledge, providing grounds to launching and adopting the principles of MSP.

The increasing pressure of human activities in the maritime space requires planning to mitigate impacts and avoid conflicts amongst users. Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) has been advocated as a powerful tool to support countries finding common goals, arbitrating competing human activities and the management of their effects on the marine environment, while balancing environmental, social, and economic aspects of ocean use.

Recognizing the potential of MSP, the European Union established a framework for MSP in Europe, launching the Maritime Spatial Planning Directive and binding all EU Member States to implement the Directive.

Outermost Regions (ORs) face particular challenges when compared to mainland territories, including remoteness and lack of human and technical resources. The OR of the Azores, Madeira (from Portugal) and Canary Islands (from Spain), joined efforts in the previous MarSP project (Macaronesian Maritime Spatial Planning) to support the implementation of the MSP processes in the three ORs of Macaronesia, in line with the EU Directive on MSP, according to an Ecosystem-Based Approach. The step forward is to advance the MSP processes in those ORs and support other ORs launching their regional MSP processes.

MSP-OR project integrates four ORs: Azores, Madeira, Canary Islands and French Guiana, from the three Member States: Portugal, Spain and France, providing the basis for developing and adopting the principles of MSP, while facilitating integrated ocean governance amongst the participating regions and countries.

During the three years of the project, important developments will be tailored, according to the specific needs of each participating region, such as filling knowledge gaps, training actions and interactive stakeholder involvement, sectoral planning approach and ecosystem approach applied at a regional level. MSP-OR will address monitoring and assessment of MSP efficacy and impacts in ORs, as a crucial step for an adaptive approach to planning and management, providing guidelines and recommendations for monitoring MSP in EU ORs. MSP-OR will also develop the Ocean Governance Platform for ORs, a virtual arena to support cooperative governance, communication between competent authorities and the sharing of MSP contributions, which will remain active beyond the duration of the project.

The project is coordinated by the Regional Fund for Science and Technology, of the Regional Government of the Azores, and counts with 11 more partners, with competences in the implementation of the MSP processes and with scientific and technical expertise. Portugal has also the representation from Secretaria Regional do Mar e das Pescas/Dire??o Regional dos Assuntos do Mar (SRMP-DRAM), from the Azores, Secretaria Regional de Mar e Pescas/Dire??o Regional do Mar (SRMar-DRM), from Madeira, and Dire??o-Geral de Política do Mar (DGPM). Spain is represented by Ministerio para la Transición Ecológica y el Reto Demográfico (MITECO), through Dirección General de la Costa y el Mar (DGCM) and Fundación Biodiversidad (FB), Centro de Estudios y Experimentación de Obras Públicas (CEDEX), Agencia Estatal Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (IEO-CSIC), Gobierno de Canarias (GOBCAN) and Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC). France is represented by the Service Hydrographique et Oceanographique de la Marine (SHOM) and Centre d’études et d’Expertise sur les Risques de l’Environnement, la Mobilité et l’Amenagement (CEREMA).

Coordinator:

Fundo Regional da Ciência e Tecnologia (FRCT)

Largo da Matriz no 45-52, 9500-094 Ponta Delgada, A?ores, Portugal

Email: [email protected]

[email protected]