Context
India and Norway have agreed to jointly work in the area of marine spatial planning in the oceanic space for the next five years.
What is Marine Spatial Planning?
- Marine spatial planning(MSP) is a process that brings together multiple users of the ocean such as:
- energy, industry, government, conservation and recreation
- It aims to make informed and coordinated decisions about how to use marineresources sustainably.
Key-highlights of the plan
- Pilot Sites: Lakshadweep and Puducherry
- Implementing Agency: Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) through National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR) for India in collaboration with the Norwegian Environment Agency through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Norway.
- Extension program: This is a part of the Indo-Norway Integrated Ocean Initiativeunder the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the two countries in 2019.
- Objective: To extend support for sustainable ocean resource utilization to advance economic and social development in coastal areas.
- Activities under the plan: A plan to ensure that human activities at sea take place in an efficient, safe, and sustainable manner in areas such as energy, transportation, fisheries, aquaculture, tourism, etc., across multiple sectors
- Notably, the World Bank and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) have expressed interest in supporting MoES in conducting MSP, a societal-beneficial initiative for India's coastal regions.
Significance of the initiative
- Support to Blue Economy: The Government of India’s vision of New India by 2030 highlights the blue economy as one of the ten core dimensions of growth. It will help in achieving the target.
- Sustainable Ocean management: MSP is globally identified as a tool for sustainable and integrated ocean management.
National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR)
Background:
- The Department of Ocean Development (DOD) established a Project Directorate i.e., Integrated Coastal and Marine Area Management (ICMAM-PD), at Chennai in January 1998 to implement the World Bank-funded Environment Management Capacity Building (EMCB) programme.
- After completion of the World Bank assignment, the project Directorate was designated as the “National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR)”, an attached office of MoES.
Activities:
- NCCR is envisaged to develop and improve the country's capabilities in addressing the challenging problems prevailing in the coastal zone, which have societal, economical and environmental implications.
- These activities of NCCR would be an integral part of the Ministry's mission to offer scientific and technical support to coastal communities and stakeholders for integrated and sustainable use of resources towards the socio-economic benefit of the society.
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