Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning: Balancing the Ecosystem Approach and the Sustainable Blue Economy

The concept of coastal and marine spatial planning (cmsp) originates from the 1970s term ‘sea-use management and planning’ to address growing problems of multiple ocean-use conflicts.1 A comprehensive approach to the governance of maritime affairs was proposed by academics, including controlling human use interactions and related data requirements. It recognized the challenges of developing integrated management frameworks and data and information systems for decision-making. The post-2006 concept of cmsp developed at a unesco workshop that year adopted pivotal ecosystem approaches to management as the basis for its implementation.2 While interpretations of cmsp vary globally, it is generally defined as “a public process of analyzing and allocating the spatial and temporal distribution of human activities in marine areas to achieve ecological, economic, and social objectives that usually have been specified through a political process.”3 In fact, cmsp processes are as important as the plan itself in building trust, understanding, and political acceptance. cmsp has become an international tool for ocean space management,