Marine Planning

Don't be intimidated by the phrase, Marine Spatial Planning (MSP)!

Marine Spatial Planning Initiative

Whole of Island Approach: Integrated Vulnerability and Adaptation Assessment

The Conservation Planning Group

Ecosystem Based Adaptation (EbA) Project:  Choiseul, Solomon Islands

By subscribing to the services below you will be sent the latest news and publications on marine protected areas, oceans, planning, policy, science and so forth.

Each month this year, 2016, Green Fire is releasing one short video clip on marine planning from the Great Bear Seas film and other new material.

Scientific research is something all of us were exposed to in school and something we hear routinely in the news.  In principle, science is supposed to interact with agencies and organizations entrusted with managing protected areas and other managed areas.  Science u

Underwater Mapping of Critical Areas Related to Biodiversity Conservation

Ecologically or Biologically Significant Marine Areas

• Ecologically or Biologically Significant Marine Areas (EBSAs): the identification process under the Conventio

Under the U.S.

Marine Species Action Plans

For over 40 years, hydrothermal vents and the communities that thrive on them have been a source of profound discovery for deep-sea ecologists. These ecosystems are found throughout the world on active plate margins as well as other geologically active features.

Well-managed and enforced no-take marine reserves generate important larval subsidies to neighboring habitats and thereby contribute to the long-term sustainability of fisheries.

Corals and coral-associated species are highly vulnerable to the emerging effects of global climate change. The widespread degradation of coral reefs, which will be accelerated by climate change, jeopardizes the goods and services that tropical nations derive from reef ecosystems.

This Guide has been produced to provide practical, science-based advice on how to maximize the effectiveness of both new and existing shark and ray MPAs, to ensure these animals are protected now and far into the future.

A Primer on Marine Protected Areas

A regulation-based classification system for Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)

A regulation-based classification system for Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)

In this report the World Ocean Initiative assesses the challenges facing key sectors in the ocean economy, including seafood, shipping, tourism and renewable energy.

Rapid anthropogenic climate change is a major threat to ocean biodiversity, increasing the challenge for marine conservation.

An Assessment of the Costs and Benefits of Mining Deepsea Minerals in the Pacific Island Region: Deep-sea Mining Cost-Benefit Analysis

The Marine Protected Area (MPA) Guide refines existing language and captures a shared vision to describe MPAs and the conservation outcomes they provide. The Guide is the work of many hundreds of stakeholders from around the world.

This report outlines the process undertaken to define and describe the special, unique marine areas of Fiji.

Low-cost, portable, observation-class, underwater remotely operated vehicles (microROVs), which can be transported and operated by a single user, are increasingly common tools in scientific, industrial, commercial, and recreational ocean application.

Catchment Management and Coral Reef Conservation

Human pressure mapping is important for understanding humanity’s role in shaping Earth’s patterns and processes. We provide the latest maps of the terrestrial human footprint and provide an assessment of change in human pressure across Earth.

The ecology of many coral reefs has changed markedly over recent decades in response to various combinations of local and global stressors.

Ancient Hawaiians developed sophisticated natural resource management systems that included various forms of spatial management.

The aim of the present report is to provide a comparative assessment of commonly used pelagic sampling methods.

Conservation standards: From rights to responsibilities

The United Nations are currently negotiating a new international legally-binding instrument to govern the global ocean commons, a vast area beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ) owned by everyone but not cared for by any single entity.

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) has just finished a report on the "Contribution of Marine Conservation Agreements to Biodiversity Protection, Fisheries Management and Sustainable Financing in Fiji."The report documents the degree and scale to which Marine Conservation Agreements (MCAs) ar

Convention on the Conservation and Management of Highly Migratory Fish Stocks in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean

In April 2011, the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation (KSLOF) embarked on the Global Reef Expedition (GRE)- the largest coral reef survey and mapping expedition in history. The GRE was a rigorous five-year scientific mission to study coral reefs around the world.

Coral reefs underpin a range of ecosystem goods and services that contribute to the well‐being of millions of people. However, tropical coral reefs in the Anthropocene are likely to be functionally different from reefs in the past.

The global COVID-19 (or coronavirus) pandemic is having a major impact across the globe and on all segments of the population.

The pandemic caused by the virus, COVID-19 has had wide-ranging effects on coastal and island communities throughout the South Pacific.

The pandemic caused by COVID-19 has had far reaching effects across the Pacific, including isolated island nations like the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), population 112,000.

Papua New Guinea (PNG), the largest of the Pacific island nations (population 8.9 million), has not been spared from the COVID-19 pandemic. The government declared a State of Emergency in March, closing off international borders and suspending domestic air travel.

One of the aims of the United Nations (UN) negotiations on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ) is to develop a legal process for the establishment of area-based management tools, including marine protected areas, in ABNJ.

The Guide contains information about essential components and sub-components of marine spatial planning legislation, describing each and highlighting its role and significance.

Draft Precautionary Management of Deep Sea Mining Potential in Pacific Islan

The UN General Assembly has made a unanimous decision to start negotiations to establish an international, legally-binding instrument for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity within Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (ABNJ).

Ecologically or Biologically Significant Marine Areas (EBSAs) and Commercial Activities

Ecologically or Biologically Significant Marine Areas (EBSAs) Special places in the world’s oceans (Western South Pacific)

These Environmental Impact Assessment Guidelines for Coastal Tourism Development in Pacific Island Countries and Territories (Guidelines) represent a sector specific version of SPREP’s regional EIA Guidelines first published in 1993 and recently expanded and updated in 2016.

Converting assemblages of marine protected areas (MPAs) into functional MPA networks requires political will, multidisciplinary information, coordinated action and time.