Marine Spatial Planning framework, country’s first
Recently Puducherry has launched India’s first Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) framework.
The MSP has been launched as part of an agreement under the Indo-Norway Integrated Ocean Initiative to balance development with sustainable management of marine resources and coastal environment protection.
The initiative will be implemented by the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) through the National Center for Coastal Research (NCCR) for India.
Marine Spatial Planning
- According to UNESCO, Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) is a method of analyzing and allocating the spatial and temporal distribution of human activities in marine areas to achieve ecological, economic and social objectives determined through political process. Public process.
- In this, sustainable use of ocean resources will be promoted.
Puducherry MSP: Key Facts
- Under a 2019 MoU, Puducherry and Lakshadweep were selected as coastlines to pilot the MSP initiative.
- The 2019 agreement envisages India and Norway to cooperate on implementing MSP in the maritime sector.
- The MSP will serve as an important governance tool in ensuring the emergence of a blue economy characterized by sustainable and equitable ocean resource management rather than an environmentally discrete brown economy.
- Brown growth describes economic development that relies heavily on fossil fuels and does not consider the negative side effects of economic production and consumption on the environment.
Source – The Hindu
