WWF Reports: Assessing Maritime Spatial Planning in the Baltic, North Sea and North-East Atlantic Ocean

Holistic and integrated approaches to Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) are necessary to secure a sustainable blue economy, address the levels of environmental degradation in our seas and support the development of impact assessment tools whose scope is wide enough to consider complex maritime seascapes against the backdrop of the ecosystems within which they exist. WWF believes that Maritime Spatial Planning based on an Ecosystem-Based Approach (EBA) is essential for the sustainable management of marine environments. 

In line with this, the WWF European Policy Office has published three reports assessing to what extent the current maritime spatial plans of EU Member States in the Baltic Sea, North Sea and North-East Atlantic Ocean regions are developed with an EBA.

These assessments follows WWF’s work to translate the requirements of the EU’s MSP Directive into a set of 33 measurable indicators. A national maritime spatial plan is considered to be successfully delivering an EBA to MSP once all indicators are achieved.

These indicators fall under four categories, each assessing a key domain of sound MSP in national maritime spatial plans:

1. Inclusion of nature;
2. Socio-economic considerations;
3. Good ocean governance;
4. Comprehensiveness of the complete MSP process.

Check out each of the reports below to learn more about MSP in each region, how each Member State was assessed, calls for action and suggested next steps.

Download the report Maritime Spatial Planning in the Baltic here

Download Maritime Spatial Planning in the Baltic - Summary for policymakers here

Download the report Maritime Spatial Planning in the North Sea here

Download the report Maritime Spatial Planning in the North-East Atlantic here

Learn more on WWF EPO website here