Integrating the multiple perspectives of people and nature in place-based marine spatial planning

Marine spatial planning (MSP) has emerged as a tool to enable marine ecosystem-based management that seeks to balance human demands for ocean space with environmental protection. However, there is a history of thinking about our ocean systems as spaces, not places. As a result, most MSPs have been implemented without consideration of place. The relationship between people and the rest of nature is at the core of the UN SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals). Due to significant knowledge gaps in sociocultural connections, people and their place-based perspectives and needs are often overlooked in the MSP process. New approaches are required to equip societies with information to inform sustainable ocean planning relevant to environmental change and the local sociocultural context. We encourage the inclusion of a distinct place-based characteristic in MSP and argue that bringing in the concepts of space and place from the discipline of geography can enable a broader view of the seascape in MSP. Here, we provide five core considerations of place-based MSP that include: (1) sense of place; (2) social-ecological systems; (3) ocean and human health; (4) multiple ways of knowing; and (5) social knowledge. We review available methods and suggest a multi-evidence-based approach that can highlight dynamic eco-cultural connections between people and the biophysical patterns and processes of interlinked landscapes and seascapes. Moving towards place-based MSP can help to solve three important issues in the current context of global socio-environmental transformations. First, these key concepts are relevant for interdisciplinary science, as solving problems raised by MSP requires more than superimposing spatial layers of scientific knowledge. Second, marine planning and management is less efficient if policies are not integrated and if issues are addressed by each individual sector rather than in a holistic manner. Third, a place-based approach accounts for individual and collective values and may open new ways to solve governance issues. A shift from understanding and managing ocean spaces to including ocean places can support progress towards sustainable and equitable MSP goals.