Marine Spatial Planning: a Step-by-Step Approach Toward Ecosystem-Based Management

This document presents a step-by-step guide to marine spatial planning designed to operationalize ecosystem-based management in national and local seas. Developed from a UNESCO IOC/MAB manual and supported by COBSEA with funding from SIDA, it clarifies MSP’s rationale, scope, and terminology, outlines intended users, and explains how to use the guide without duplicating technical GIS or monitoring manuals. It defines MSP as a public process to allocate human activities in marine space and time, highlights conflicts among uses and between uses and the environment, and articulates expected benefits and outcomes. The core provides a ten-step cycle: establishing need and authority, securing finance, pre-planning, stakeholder participation, assessments of current and future conditions, plan preparation and approval, implementation and enforcement, monitoring and evaluation, and adaptive revision.