Marine Spatial Planning : Blue Economy for Resilient Africa Program - Operational Brief

Overview & Synopsis

Governments face the complicated challenge of making policy decisions relating to coastal and marine ecosystems without a well-established body of knowledge about such systems. To complicate matters, the benefits that marine and coastal ecosystems deliver, which include resilience to climate change, are highly contested and, ironically, vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Marine spatial planning (MSP) provides a framework for managing these tensions. MSP reduces investment risk and improves investor confidence by including a broad range of stakeholders in participatory mapping and decision-making processes. This is important because Africa’s Blue Economy will require substantial private-sector investment. This brief sets out how MSP can help governments better manage the dual challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss in a collaborative, participatory manner that considers both present and future uses and creates an attractive environment for private investment into the Blue Economy.