The requirement for marine spatial planning has increased in profile in recent years as the variety of human activities take place at sea and their ranges in space and time have expanded.  There is a need to ensure that the differing activities are efficient and sustainable as possible and that conflicts are minimised. Maritime spatial planning processes bring stakeholders and decision makers together in a transparent manner to enable the effective planning of a suite of maritime activities. In turn this should reduce conflicts between different sectors and stakeholders, encourage investment in maritime activities by providing a transparency, predictable and clear framework in which decisions can be made and allow increase coordination and cooperation within and between countries.

MRAG has provided advice to clients on marine spatial planning from the analysis and comparison of the different Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) regimes in EU Member States for offshore renewable power generation deployment to the implementation of the British Indian Ocean Territory Marine Protected Area (MPA), which at its declaration was the world’s largest no-take MPA.  The need for MPAs has been highlighted by a number of leading marine scientists but balancing the conservation benefits of these in coastal nearshore and pelagic ecosystems may differ greatly. MRAG has conducted research into the benefits of various MPAs and their relative environmental benefits.  

Projects

Title Region End Date
Defining the geographic scale of fish species populations, for impact assessments of low carbon energy projects and marine spatial planning

There is currently no common understanding of how best to quantify the spatial scale…

Europe
Feasibility study on applying a spatial footprint approach to quantifying fishing pressure.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) revised policy…

Europe
South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands Fisheries Management.

The work undertaken by MRAG for Government of South Georgia and the South Sandwich…

Atlantic Ocean
MRAG Project A review of the conservation benefits of marine protected areas for pelagic species associated with fisheries

There is now a vast body of evidence supporting the conservation benefits of marine…

Global
MRAG Project Seanergy 2020 – WP2 National maritime spatial planning regimes

The objective of this project was to analyse and compare the different Maritime…

Europe
Strengthening management of the British Indian Ocean Territory MPA

This project developed a strategic research programme to deliver answers to key…

Indian Ocean