The Northern European Sea Basins project (NESBp) supports the Greater North Sea Basin Initiative (GNSBI) in fostering international cooperation for maritime spatial planning (MSP) in the North Sea basin, with strong collaboration and experience sharing with the Baltic Sea region. The project aligns with the European Green Deal objectives and aims to address the growing challenges that economic sectors face in reaching a sustainable blue economy, including competition for space, sustainability of economic activities, and the cumulative impacts on the environment of spatial planning stressors.
The Northern European Sea Basins project focuses on marine and maritime spatial planning in the North Sea emphasising cross-border cooperation to promote long-term environmental and economic resilience.
By linking GNSBI with HELCOM-VASAB MSP working group, NESBp fosters knowledge sharing and networking across sea basins to enhance strategic and efficient MSP, building on insights from the eMSP NBSR project and other EU Green Deal initiatives.
NESBp aims to align marine and maritime plans, facilitate an ecosystem-based approach in MSP, and encourage integrative, multi-perspective cooperation for sustainable marine and maritime developments.
The initiative will contribute to enhancing multi-level governance, strengthening resilience towards climate change and biodiversity loss threats in the transition to a sustainable blue economy.
The project wants to:
- Ensure coherent MSP implementation and maritime policy alignment across borders in the North Sea basin.
- Evaluate cross-border cooperative interactions among authorities and inter-ministerial bodies.
- Establish a structure for cross-border collaboration and learning with North and Baltic Sea countries.
- Promote integrated, ecosystem-based governance in the Greater North Sea Basin.
- Facilitate the application of ecosystem-based MSP approaches.
- Provide practical solutions to enhance multi-use of marine areas.
- Support sea basin-level decision-making through a knowledge and data-sharing platform.
To achieve this, the project will:
- Evaluate maritime spatial plans.
- Enhance MSP development and implementation through improved networks, organisational memory, and informed decision-making.
- Disseminate outcomes via working groups and knowledge-sharing platforms under the GNSBI.
- Develop practical concepts combining an ecosystem-based approach with sustainable blue economy activities.
- Conduct gap analyses and cumulative assessments of MSPs and related themes.
Nordregio plays an important role primarily in the work package “Ocean governance“, led by GNSBI and HELCOM-VASAB, focusing on ecosystem-based MSP, policies for climate neutrality, and knowledge exchange between the Baltic Sea and North Sea. The aim is to establish a governance structure for the GNSBI while enhancing transboundary governance through MSP across the North Sea and Baltic Sea basins. Nordregio will contribute to organising events for cross-basin dialogue, exploring governance scenarios for the Greater North Sea Basin, and facilitating cross-border and cross-sector policy discussions. Key activities also include promoting an ecosystem-based approach in the Greater North Sea by drawing lessons from the Baltic Sea region and developing policy instruments to support climate neutrality and sustainable marine and maritime governance.
Read more about the project here: https://vasab.org/project/nesbp/