Part-financed by the European Union(European Regional Development Fund)

Pan-Baltic stakeholder workshop on

Research WorkshopResearch Workshop “Enhancing Research for “Enhancing Research for

Marine Spatial Planning in the Marine Spatial Planning in the Baltic SEA”Baltic SEA”

Klaipeda, 28-29 May

N. Blažauskas, CORPIPalanga, 2 December, 2013

Participants at the workshop - 30:

Partners: 6Other institutions: 9

Goals of the workshop:

•To establish dialog between research and Maritime Spatial Planning•Identification of applicability of research on marine ecosystems and socio – economic valuation of ecosystem services to support Marine Spatial Planning•To reflect on current and future research topics in order to cover knowledge gaps and therefore facilitate the Marine Spatial Planning•To Elaborate potential research priorities to be addressed for the BONUS Call 2013 themes related to the MSP

The main topics at the workshopEnhancing Research for Marine Spatial Planning in the Baltic Sea

- introduction to MSP principles and Lithuanian Model case

Session 1: Ecosystem based approach in MSP• Identification of current research efforts that can support the understanding of the ecosystem

based approach• Applicability of predictive biological mapping for MSP (PreHab and MARMONI project)• Small scale detection of marine assets, their temporal variability and the complex interactions

in marine fauna and reflection in delineation of protected areas (DENOFLIT Project).

Session 2: Economic Valuation of Ecosystem Services (ES) to support MSP

• Concept of ecosystem services assessment, applicable socio - economic valuation methods for the evaluation of marine areas.

• Case studies on socio – economic valuation of marine biodiversity in the Gulf of Gdansk and MSP in Norway

Session 3: Interdisciplinary session• Three thematic blocks focused on ecosystem based approach ; integration of socio – economic

indicators of ecosystem services into MSP ; Land – Sea integration

Key findings:

Interest in the development of joined databases for MSP purposes including biological and socio – economic data, biological mapping techniques are fundamental aspect for the implementation of the ecosystem based approach in MSP . Research should investigate the role of networks of MPA and possibly assess the ES provision derived from the ecological networksResearchers’ face problems in sharing knowledge on the management of marine areas on Pan-Baltic level (conservation regimes, uses, restrictions) and in particular of MPA in order to have a better understanding of different planning and management approaches – “What works and what doesn`t?”.Ecosystem Services can be applied as performance indicator on how different ecosystem – based management measures or planning scenarios can affect human wellbeingThere is the need to develop and apply tradeoff analysis tools based on ES provided by a specific sea use. Tradeoff analysis system should enable to assess tradeoffs not only between two conflicting uses (2 dimensional perspective) but be capable to address multiple uses conflicts/benefits

Some lessons learned:

“Research” in MSP is a broad concept and requires a careful selection of research topics to be addressed in a single workshopExperience from attendance in other sectorial workshops shows that research in MSP is constant a component in of the workshops, in terms research activities within the sector, identification of research gaps and research priorities within the same sectors.