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This chapter briefly presents a state of the art on the progress of maritime spatial planning
worldwide, at a regional level in the Western Mediterranean along with information on potential
MSP components in Algeria based on literature research.
1. MSP Worldwide
On a global scale, the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, UNCLOS provides an overarching
framework for allocating marine space to national states, through codifying concepts such as the
Territorial Sea, EEZ, Contiguous Zone, and the Continental Shelf. The preamble to the
convention already notes that “the problems of ocean space are closely interrelated and need to
be considered as a whole”. Nevertheless, maritime policies often correspond to the competencies
of national governments. Whilst the vision of „maritime affairs‟ (uses, activities, and utilisation
of the maritime space in the strategic sense) is that of a „matter of state‟, a current trend is
transboundary MSP mainly seen in the EU region with few examples in practice.
(IOC/UNESCO 2020)
Over the past decades, various countries have started to use MSP to achieve sustainable
development, including the goal of developing a “blue economy” or “blue growth”, and
biodiversity conservation in ocean, and coastal areas. One of the earliest examples of MSP was
the plan developed for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park in Australia (Vince 2014). According
to Merrie, and Olsson (2014), much of the increase in interest in MSP seems to have derived
from the first international workshop on MSP that was organized by UNESCO‟s
Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) in 2006. Since then, about half of the 150
countries with marine waters started some form of MSP initiative, and the interest in MSP
continues to grow. For example, MSP is mandatory throughout an entire region (Europe) where
22 countries must have their marine spatial plans in place by 2021 according to binding EU
legislation (figure 8).
Although MSP is currently underway in more than 60 countries worldwide (figure 9), not all
MSP initiatives have been successful as most of them face challenges like stakeholder
engagement, political framework, human dimension, environment sustainability, monitoring, and
Figure 8: Estimated areas of world EEZs covered by approved
MSP plans (according to Ehler, 2021)
Figure 9: Number of countries by region with MSP initiatives in
2018 (according to Ehler, 2021).
This chapter briefly presents a state of the art on the progress of maritime spatial planning
worldwide, at a regional level in the Western Mediterranean along with information on potential
MSP components in Algeria based on literature research.
1. MSP Worldwide
On a global scale, the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, UNCLOS provides an overarching
framework for allocating marine space to national states, through codifying concepts such as the
Territorial Sea, EEZ, Contiguous Zone, and the Continental Shelf. The preamble to the
convention already notes that “the problems of ocean space are closely interrelated and need to
be considered as a whole”. Nevertheless, maritime policies often correspond to the competencies
of national governments. Whilst the vision of „maritime affairs‟ (uses, activities, and utilisation
of the maritime space in the strategic sense) is that of a „matter of state‟, a current trend is
transboundary MSP mainly seen in the EU region with few examples in practice.
(IOC/UNESCO 2020)
Over the past decades, various countries have started to use MSP to achieve sustainable
development, including the goal of developing a “blue economy” or “blue growth”, and
biodiversity conservation in ocean, and coastal areas. One of the earliest examples of MSP was
the plan developed for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park in Australia (Vince 2014). According
to Merrie, and Olsson (2014), much of the increase in interest in MSP seems to have derived
from the first international workshop on MSP that was organized by UNESCO‟s
Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) in 2006. Since then, about half of the 150
countries with marine waters started some form of MSP initiative, and the interest in MSP
continues to grow. For example, MSP is mandatory throughout an entire region (Europe) where
22 countries must have their marine spatial plans in place by 2021 according to binding EU
legislation (figure 8).
Although MSP is currently underway in more than 60 countries worldwide (figure 9), not all
MSP initiatives have been successful as most of them face challenges like stakeholder
engagement, political framework, human dimension, environment sustainability, monitoring, and
Figure 8: Estimated areas of world EEZs covered by approved
MSP plans (according to Ehler, 2021)
Figure 9: Number of countries by region with MSP initiatives in
2018 (according to Ehler, 2021).