Lakshadweep And Puducherry – Pilot Sites For Marine Spatial Planning

• 03 Mar 2021

India and Norway will jointly work in the area of marine spatial planning in the oceanic space for the next five years. Lakshadweep and Puducherry have been identified as pilot sites for the project.

• This is a part of the Indo-Norway Integrated Ocean Initiative under the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the two countries in 2019.
• The initiative known as Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) will be implemented by the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) through National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR) for India.
• Puducherry and Lakshadweep have been chosen for the pilot project in view of their setups with unique opportunities for multiple sectors (such as industries, fisheries, and tourism) to flourish.
• Earlier, NCCR had developed coastal management plans for Chennai, Goa, and Gulf of Kachchh which proved very successful. Now, the MSP initiative will aid development of multiple economic sectors and stakeholders in greater number of coastal areas of the country.

About Marine Spatial Planning

• Marine spatial planning (MSP) is a process that brings together multiple users of the ocean – including energy, industry, government, conservation and recreation – to make informed and coordinated decisions about how to use marine resources sustainably.
• MSP generally uses maps to create a more comprehensive picture of a marine area – identifying where and how an ocean area is being used and what natural resources and habitat exist.
• MSP is globally identified as a tool for sustainable and integrated ocean management. It is a noted area for work in India’s (draft) Blue Economic Policy being developed by MoES.