‘A system that works for the sea’? Exploring Stakeholder Engagement in Marine Spatial Planning

Abstract

This paper aims to contribute to the current debate on Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) by exploring the issue of stakeholder engagement. MSP is an emergent policy field that is subject to an increasing body of research, yet the role, scope and nature of participatory engagement within the process remains a neglected topic. This paper briefly reviews the nature of the ‘marine problem’, to which MSP is seen to be the response and describes the emergence of MSP policy in the UK with specific emphasis on participatory aspects. Drawing on the experience of terrestrial planning it discusses the potential benefits of stakeholder engagement in MSP and highlights some of the key issues that need to be taken into account when shaping stakeholder input into the process. It then goes on to describe the findings from a series of interviews with key stakeholders in the Irish Sea Region, which suggest that we need to develop a more critical and deeper understanding of how various interests frame the ‘marine problem’, and how they see their role in shaping the form of the MSP process. This highlights the importance of encouraging stakeholder involvement in MSP, the need to develop a shared vision of a ‘sea interest’. Priorities are then set for research to support this important policy agenda.

Keywords:

• Marine Spatial Planning
• participation
• marine management
• Irish Sea

Acknowlegements

The authors would like to express sincere gratitude to all the interview participants for their responses and time and the two anonymous referees for their valuable feedback.

Notes

1. The Marine Bill is being taken forward by the UK's Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), although has a complicated geographic impact depending on differing economic sectors and devolved responsibilities (see DEFRA 2008c). The main provisions of the Bill apply to England and Wales, with the Scottish Government introducing their own parallel, but differentiated, Marine (Scotland) Bill into the Scottish Parliament (April 2009). Northern Ireland is also beginning to prepare its own legislation for its territorial waters, with consultation on the policy proposals expected to take place around April 2010.

2. The EEZ is an area that the UK has limited jurisdiction over in relation to certain marine activities, as established by the United Nations Convention in Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

3. Under the Marine Bill. (s.47) the UK marine area is divided into a series of the ‘marine planning regions’, generally divided between inshore and offshore zones in each of the devolved administrations. For each of these, the Bill designates a ‘marine plan authority’ (s. 48), namely the Secretary of State for the Environment for England, appropriate Government Ministers in Scotland and Wales and the Department of Environment in Northern Ireland. This gives these authorities a range of powers and duties for planning in the areas defined in the Bill and with provisions of compatibility and consultation between them.

4. For the purposes of this paper a stakeholder is defined as being “Any group or individual who can affect or is affected by the achievement of the organizations objectives”, (Freeman 1984, p. 46).

5. See http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Environment/Wildlife-Habitats/protectedareas/SSMEI (Accessed 4 August 2009).

6. Commission for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Northeast Atlantic. See http://www.ospar.org

7. The MSPP consortium was comprised planning consultants, marine researchers and scientists, and was set up to research options for developing, implementing and managing marine spatial planning in UK coastal and offshore waters (MSPP 2006).

8. To avoid a confusion of terms, more traditional forms of public involvement throughout the paper are referred to as ‘consultation’, those that involved greater engagement through dialogue as ‘deliberative’ and the collective term ‘participation’ is used to refer to both at the same time.

9. Six of the Interviewees were from England, six from Scotland, two from Wales, 11 from Northern Ireland and one from the Republic of Ireland.