Integrated, Ecosystem-based Marine Spatial Planning: First Results from International Simulation-Game Experiment

Marine ecosystems around the globe are increasingly affected by human activities such as fisheries, shipping, offshore petroleum developments, wind farms, recreation, tourism and more. Whereas the necessity and urgency to regulate and plan competing marine spatial claims is growing, the planning and regulation of these claims is even more difficult than on land, among others because of insufficient data and knowledge on how ecosystems are affected, the international dimension of marine ecosystems and, as yet, poorly validated Marine Spatial Planning practices. The main question in this paper is: what exactly defines the high level of complexity of Marine Spatial Planning (MSP), and, given the strong transnational dimension of MSP, what can be done to integrate and harmonize the various planning practices of the EU member states? In this paper, the authors present the use of an international simulation-game (with 68 international MSP professionals in Lisbon, 3 November 2011) to conduct an expert panel study on MSP, both in the real and gamed countries. In order to analyze the panel and in-game data, several scales on MSP-outcome and process were defined and validated. In this paper the authors present the main insights of the pre-game panel study. They conclude that the differences in approaches to the MSP process and outcomes among the real countries are significant.