Experience shows that marine spatial planning (MSP) is likely to be most successful in achieving expected or desired outcomes and results when conducted on the basis of an "objective-based approach". An objective-based approach to MSP is organized around a hierarchy of goals, objectives, and indicators that evaluate the performance and management measures in achieving such goals and objectives. Organizing your MSP initiatives in such manner will typically involve a number of tasks, including:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Various countries have used different ways to organize their process for MSP. We are currently compiling a set of good practices to illustrate how MSP principles, goals, objectives, etc., have been developed in other countries. We expect to have it available here by the end of June 2009.

 

You can read about an initial set of good practices about the organization of the MSP process in Step 3 (p. 36-42) of the guide "Marine spatial planning: A step-by-step approach toward ecosystem-based management". Download (pdf, 1.55 MB)