Marine spatial planning and the new frontiers of marine governance

Marine Spatial Planning (MSP)6 is a relatively new instrument designed to aid in answering all the three problems raised previously. According to a popular description, MSP is ‘a process of analysing and allocating parts of three-dimensional marine spaces (or ecosystems) to specific uses or objectives, to achieve ecological, economic, and social objectives that are usually specified through a political process’7. Forward-looking planning can supplement or even replace ad hoc systems of decision-making and regulation (Crowder & Norse, 2008; Ehler & Douvere, 2009). What MSP is promising, then, is a new process, which takes into account all the sectors of marine governance and allocates marine space both geographically and temporally for different purposes that are deemed politically desirable.8 MSP allows both high level of environmental protection as well as a wide range of human activities, and emphasises coordinated networks of national, regional and global institutions. The aim of this chapter is first to analyse the core elements of MSP, namely integration, spatiality and adaptivity. It then proceeds to analyse its potential for addressing the problems of declining environmental conditions, increasing uses and fragmentation of governance in European and Australian contexts. The chapter concludes with some cautionary notes and a call for balancing the promises and threats of MSP.