Assessing the impact of a new approach to ocean management: Evidence to date from five ocean plans

Jason Blau and Lee Green

Marine Policy, 2015, vol. 56, issue C, 1-8

Abstract: Previous studies have helped define what good ocean planning (also known as maritime or marine spatial planning) looks like, effective stakeholder engagement, possible conservation and community benefits, and how ocean plans could theoretically cut costs and create economic value. But little evidence has yet been compiled showing the actual results of ocean plans, and whether or not they have delivered on their promise to balance competing interests through a collaborative process that considers environmental concerns. This paper presents an empirical study of five government-approved ocean plans, all of which resulted in broadly shared net benefits. Economically, these five ocean plans delivered on average $60 million per year in value from new industries and retained value in existing industries, although some stakeholders bore losses and government spending did not decrease. Environmentally, planning increased marine protection, ensured industrial uses avoided sensitive habitat, cut carbon emissions, and reduced the risk of oil spills. Socially, marine planning increased broad stakeholder engagement (thus improving design and administration of plans), while building trust that will likely improve sustainable future use of ocean space.

Keywords: Ocean planning; Marine spatial planning; Economic value; Conservation; Social impact (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308597X15000299
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:marpol:v:56:y:2015:i:c:p:1-8

DOI: 10.1016/j.marpol.2015.02.004

Access Statistics for this article

Marine Policy is currently edited by Eddie Brown

More articles in Marine Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().