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Marine planning

Marine planning should ensure space for wildlife dependent on the sea, including seabirds, as well as for marine activities

We believe that a co-ordinated planning regime for the sea is needed in seas that are increasingly busy.

We have long been keen advocates of marine planning on the grounds that it will improve the protection of the marine environment through better management of marine activities and better management of the use of marine space and resources to ensure space for wildlife.

However, marine planning should tackle more than wildlife protection.

Based on experience of terrestrial planning, we believe that marine planning should facilitate marine development in a coherent way and provide certainty about where and how development should be allowed.

Such a system should help to identify suitable or unsuitable areas for particular activities and help to avoid planning conflicts, while also ensuring space for marine wildlife.

What does an effective marine planning system look like?

We have commissioned a number of reports to inform our views on just what an effective marine planning system might look like (see downloads).

In Scotland, along with the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) we commissioned the report Making the Case for Marine SpatialPlanning in Scotland (May 2004), which explores how a marine spatial planning system could be used to better manage Scottish waters.

In December 2004, we commissioned an analysis of the Potential benefits of marine spatial planning to economic activity in the UK to improve understanding, and inform the debate about the likely implications of marine spatial planning for the sectors affected.

The report identified that there was growing interest in, and experience of, marine spatial planning across the world. It was clear that potential for marine spatial planning to promote sustainable economic development is wide ranging.

The report reviewed a variety of international case studies relevant to the UK context and showed that marine spatial planning can help marine economic activities to develop sustainably while safeguarding the environment.

In several examples, industry and stakeholders were initially sceptical of marine spatial planning, but became convinced of its benefits during their engagement in the process. 

The report concluded that marine spatial planning has the potential to be beneficial to both the economy and the environment.

With the delivery of a new marine planning system under the Marine & Coastal Access Act 2009, we are about to embark on a new and more strategic approach to managing human activities in the marine environment.

Therefore, a number of environmental organisations thought it was timely to see what marine planning best-practice UK planners could benefit from using, and what pitfalls they should avoid. The report Mobilising the Marine Act (January 2010) takes stock of global best-practice, revisiting some of the marine planning case studies that we examined in 2004.

Last modified: 14 April 2010

Marine law and policy

• Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009
• Marine Protected Areas for the UK
• Marine planning
• Review of marine environmental indicators