Through its Marine Conservation Initiative, the Moore Foundation has long supported marine spatial planning, or "ocean planning," as an important strategy towards ocean conservation.
Marine Ecosystems and Management (MEAM) recently sat down with Charles “Bud” Ehler, a consultant on marine spatial planning to UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC), to discuss the state of marine spatial planning after the recent International Conference on Marine/Maritime Spatial Planning in Paris. This conference occurred ten years after the first IOC international workshop on marine spatial planning in 2006 — a meeting that was widely considered as the starting point for the spread of marine spatial planning internationally.
In his conversation with MEAM, Ehler notes several observations about the international conference, including the youth and diversity of the participants, which is a promising sign in a field looking for new planners.
Ehler also noted of field progress:
“The biggest change in MSP over the past 10 years is its geographic scope. It has grown from initiatives in a handful of places, mostly in Western Europe and North America, to over 60 initiatives around the world in various stages of development.”
The foundation has provided grants to the UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) and Marine Affairs Research and Education as an effort to expand and synthesize a network of ocean planning professionals. Ehler’s thoughts highlight the synergy between these two grants, and the importance of supporting ocean planning into the future.
Read the full interview with Bud Ehler:
Marine Spatial Planning ten years later: A conversation with Charles “Bud” Ehler
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