The World Ocean Council (WOC) will convene ocean industries on 13-14 July in Washington DC to foster and facilitate business involvement in US coastal and marine spatial planning (CMSP).
The US has established a National Ocean Council (NOC) that will be implementing CMSP through a series of nine regional programs. The NOC will be holding a National Workshop for government agencies to develop the government’s CMSP Strategic Action Plan in late June.
A coordinated, multi-sectoral process to ensure the ocean business community is well- informed and constructively engaged in US CMSP efforts is essential to CMSP being able to support the sustainable use of marine space and resources by responsible industry operators.
The National Business Forum on CMSP will address this and will:
- Create a clear understanding of CMSP in the ocean business community
- Define and examine the potential business impacts and benefits of CMSP
- Ensure the business community is fully informed of the specific US CMSP process and plans
- Develop a WOC Action Plan for engaging CMSP and facilitating/coordinating business involvement in CMSP as it develops in the US
CMSP is defined by the Task Force as “a comprehensive, adaptive, integrated, and transparent spatial planning process, based on sound science, for analysing current and anticipated uses of ocean, coastal, and Great Lakes areas. CMSP identifies areas most suitable for various types or classes of activities in order to reduce conflicts among uses, reduce environmental impacts, facilitate compatible uses, and preserve critical ecosystem services to meet economic, environmental, security, and social objectives”. CMSP seeks to move sea use planning “away from the current sector-by-sector, statute by statute approach” according to the Task Force information.
