THE FIRST MARITIME SPATIAL PLAN FOR LATVIA - THE CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES MSP is an adaptive, map-based zoning approach relying on geographical information systems, for planning in the marine area, balancing the demands for space and the often conflicting activities that are carried out, enabling sustainable economic growth while at the same time preserving and maintaining the ecosystem. (Marine institute, Ireland)

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Basic facts total area of Baltic Sea waters under jurisdiction of Latvia is 28,000 km2

marine waters of Latvia (the inland maritime waters, territorial sea and exclusive economic zone) takes up 7,7% total area of the Baltic sea

32,5% of total area of the territorial sea is designated as marine protected areas

waters under jurisdiction of Latvia border upon Lithuania, Estonia and Sweden

the legal base for MSP in Latvia is Spatial planning law, issued on 2011

Latvia`s MSP will cover all marine waters of Latvian jurisdiction – Exclusive Economic Zone, Territorial sea and inland marine waters (between base line and coast line) considering a terrestrial part that is functionally interlinked with the sea

the time perspective of the plan is up to 2030, including short term and long term objectives

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Content and timing LV MSP the long-term plan for the next 12 years

STRATEGY

Priorities

concept of sea use

ANALYSYS

Socio economic, environmental

analysis,

trends and conclusions

MAPS

Scenarios, sea use zoning

thematic maps and schemes

USES AND MANAGEMENT

Zoning principles criteria,

justifications

implementation provisions

1st draft - end of June 2015

national stakeholder cross border consultations- starting from July 2015

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• MSP is national level plan adopted by government

• Municipalities have responsibility to plan coastal waters - 2 km from shoreline towards the sea (part of local municipal planning process)

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Actors

MARITIME ADMINISTRATION OF LATVIA

Latvian Institute of Aquatic Ecology

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At which stage of the process we are?

Step 1 Defining need and establishing authority MEPRD, LHEI, LMA 2010 Step 2 Obtaining financial support 2010 Step 3 Organizing the process (pre-planning) 2011-2014 Step 4 Organizing stakeholder participation 2015 Step 5 Defining and analyzing existing conditions 2015 Step 6 Defining and analyzing future conditions 2015 Step 7 Developing and approving the spatial management plan 2015-2017 Step 8 Implementing and enforcing the spatial management plan 2017-2030 Step 9 Monitoring and evaluating performance 2023 Step 10 Adapting the marine spatial management process

According to methodology provided by UNESCO Maritime spatial planning initiative

Use of the SEA according to importance for national economy

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1. Maritime shipping and port operations - existing 2. Tourism and recreation - existing 3. Fisheries- existing

4. Military - existing

5. Offshore installations -existing 6. Underwater cultural heritage – under investigation 7. Offshore energy production - 1 license operational application for 200 MW of total capacity

1. Oil exploration and exploitation - ? Resources have been

evaluated 2. Extraction of raw materials- ? Some research has been done

• value of fish resources in Latvia has approximately 64 million euro a year

• the turnover for fishing, fish processing, ports, maritime transport, tourism enterprises accounted for more than 600 million euros in 2009

• out of those 241 million will be accounted for harbor activity, which also make the most profit over the sectors and ~ 200 million for tourism

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By consultant, Marine Spatial Planning Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission UNESCO Charles N. Ehler

MSP is zoning map and/or a permit

system

Individual permit decisions made

within individual sectors (for example,

the fisheries or tourism sector) should be

based on the zoning maps and the

comprehensive spatial plan

For ecosystem approach – best available data method

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A preliminary integrated classification of biodiversity status of the Baltic Sea. Areas in blue and green represent areas with an ‘acceptable biodiversity status’, while areas in yellow, orange and red represent areas with an ‘unacceptable biodiversity status’, based on HELCOM (2009)

MSP, WFD, MSFD .....

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in accordance with the results of farm survey data (2010), 88% of the area of arable land is treated by conventional methods, only 12% of farms used environmentally friendly cultivation techniques

37% of cultivated cropland areas in the winter months are left without plant coverage. The rest of the area is covered with winter crops (47%), cover crops (5%) or plant residues (11%)

on the condition that agricultural land area and farm's animals number is invariable, the utilization of artificial fertilizers in recent years have increased

municipal sector`s contribution is 4 % of total N and 5 % for total load P

WFD and MSP? Eutrofication of Baltic sea P and N loads from land based and airborne sources

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MSP and MSFD?

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Initial assessment of status of the marine environment, indicates

insufficient data for estimations

PoM- for LV - under preparation

Surveys carried out for MSFD shall be used for MSP in particular for the designation of the biologically valuable priority areas

Harmonized management of activities both onshore and offshore is required in order to minimize environmental impacts, foster the development and improvement of social assets

STRATEGIC RESEARCH AGENDA

2011–2017, UPDATE 2014,

BONUS

HELCOM - monitoring, data,

methodology, guidelines

VASAB joint planning efforts

BSRS Action plan – coordination

of activities

To create reliable GIS based MSP for decision making - more research is needed...

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National effort : 3 million euro from Fisheries fund have been allocated for marine research in 2014-2020: definition of indicator values for

D1 inventory of invasive species D2 development food chain concept

D4 survey for sea bed integrity D6 definition of limit values for

dangerous substances D8 assessment of pollution with

microscopic plastic particles D10 assessment of noise level in

marine waters D11 valuating marine ecosystem in

monetary terms elaboration/adaption of data

assessment methodologies

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The result of a good MSP process is a better understanding of the needs of others

2015-2017