Project: Effective ecosystem-based maritime spatial planning and conservation in European Seas

Research published Sept 2025

Lead researchers and institutions:

Wesley Flannery and Ben McAteer at Queens University Belfast *, alongside universities, research institutes and other organisations in Canada, Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Netherlands and the UK.

* RTPI-accredited planning school

 

Funders

This project is part of MarinePlan, which received funding from the European Union's Horizon Europe research and innovation programme from 2022-2025.

Note:  Findings and recommendations reflect the views of the researchers at the time of writing and are not necessarily the views of the RTPI

 

Key takeaways:

• Advancing practical Ecosystem-Based Maritime Spatial Planning (EB-MSP) – MarinePlan developed a science-based Decision Support System (DSS) that helps align Marine Spatial Planning with biodiversity conservation and restoration goals. Working with stakeholders across sectors, ecosystem concepts are turned into tools and criteria to help planners integrate ecological priorities into real-world marine plans.
  
  
• Tools tested across diverse European seas ensure broad applicability – MarinePlan applied its DSS across eight planning sites with different marine environments – from coastal zones to open ocean and deep sea – and different governance contexts. This helps planners respond to local ecological, socio-economic and transboundary challenges, while supporting targets like the EU Biodiversity Strategy.
  
  
• Supporting better policy and decision-making – MarinePlan offers best-practice guidance and policy recommendations for EB-MSP at regional and EU-levels. It communicates findings to policymakers, planners and stakeholders, and presents pathways for better coordination, governance and long-term sustainability in marine management.

Summary

‘MarinePlan: Improved transdisciplinary science for effective ecosystem-based maritime spatial planning and conservation in European Seas’ is an EU–Horizon funded research initiative aiming to strengthen how marine spaces are planned and managed to support biodiversity conservation and sustainable human use of marine resources. It responds to key environmental challenges, including biodiversity loss, climate change, and increasing pressures on marine ecosystems, by advancing ecosystem-based marine spatial planning (EB-MSP) across European seas.

MarinePlan developed a Decision Support System (DSS) – a suite of tools, guidelines, and best-practice methods co-designed with stakeholders to help align MSP with strategic conservation and restoration objectives. The DSS integrates operational criteria for identifying ecologically or biologically significant areas (EBSA) and supports allocating conservation and restoration areas at multiple scales while considering complex socio-ecological contexts and the impacts of climate change.

The project had four key objectives:

1. Co-develop the DSS and best-practice guidance with key stakeholders.
2. Create quantitative metrics for operationalizing ecological significance and apply them across spatial and temporal scales.
3. Implement and apply the DSS at eight diverse European planning sites – Azores, Bay of Biscay, Campania, Celtic Sea, Greek Seas, Southern North Sea, Western Baltic Sea, Western Mediterranean Sea – to test and validate planning scenarios and tools.
4. Derive policy recommendations and governance improvements to enhance EB-MSP implementation across European seas.

Key strengths of the MarinePlan project include:

• choosing varied planning sites to reflect the ecological, socio-economic, and governance diversity of European marine areas and ensure transferability of insights to other regions.
• producing realistic planning options and action points that can contribute to the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 and broader conservation targets.
• emphasizing communication of results to decision-makers at multiple governance levels (sectoral and cross-scale), aiming to bridge science, policy, and practice.

Outputs include a comprehensive DSS with guidance documents, planning tools, scenarios, policy briefs, and scientific publications intended to support more coherent, sustainable, and ecosystem-focused maritime planning across the EU.

Recommendations:

Bespoke policy briefs for each case study ensure that recommendations align with regional contexts.

1. Embed ecosystem-based principles into MSP frameworks – update statutory MSP processes to explicitly incorporate ecosystem-based objectives, including quantifiable criteria such as EBSA and clear links to conservation/restoration outcomes. This strengthens how plans safeguard biodiversity alongside human uses.
2. Strengthen cross-sectoral and transboundary governance – enhance coordination mechanisms between sectors (e.g. fisheries, energy, shipping) and across national borders to better align planning decisions with shared ecosystem goals. This includes establishing formal platforms for knowledge exchange, conflict resolution and harmonised decision-making in shared sea basins.
3. Improve stakeholder engagement and knowledge integration – facilitate early, continuous participation of stakeholders (industry, local communities, scientists, NGOs) in planning processes to ensure diverse knowledge – including traditional, local and scientific insights – is integrated into EB-MSP design and implementation.
4. Build capacity and data infrastructure – invest in data collection, monitoring systems, and analytical tools that support evidence-based planning (e.g., mapping of ecological features, cumulative impacts, climate pressures) and enhance the ability of authorities to apply decision support tools effectively.
5. Link MSP with broader environmental policy goals – better align MSP with EU biodiversity targets (e.g., protection and restoration under the EU Biodiversity Strategy) and other frameworks (e.g., Marine Strategy Framework Directive) to ensure marine plans contribute to overarching environmental commitments and long-term ecosystem resilience.

 

Full reference

Galparsoro, I., Montero, N., Mandiola, G., Menchaca, I., Borja, Á., Flannery, W., Katsanevakis, S., Fraschetti, S., Fabbrizzi, E., Elliott, M., Bas, M., McAteer, B. et al. (2025) ‘Assessment tool addresses implementation challenges of ecosystem-based management principles in marine spatial planning processes’, Communications Earth & Environment, 6(1), p.55.

 

Link to the project website and outputs

• MarinePlan 
• Policy briefs
• Paper – Assessment tool addresses implementation challenges of ecosystem-based management principles in marine spatial planning processes
• Paper – Network governance and reflexivity in fisheries management: a case study of Northern Ireland
• Paper – Managing marine resources sustainably – But how do we know when marine management has been successful?

 

Related outputs

Poster – The barriers and enablers of achieving 30x30 EU marine conservation targets

Report – Report on the barriers to adopting novel and dynamic approaches to Marine Protected Areas designation and implementation

Report – Report on the analysis of existing policies and institutions