Participation as means for safeguarding the marine commons: Notes from the Marine Spatial Planning process in Cyprus

When the process of transposing the European Directive for the Maritime Spatial Planning began in Cyprus, a citizen’s initiative that focused on preserving the status of the sea and the coastline as a public good ensured that it would be an important claim-maker during the policy discussions. The involvement, as well as the technical and legal expertise of members of this Initiative, influenced the legal framework into which the MSP Directive was transposed into national Law in the Republic of Cyprus and ensured that ideological elements around the status and use of the marine space became part of the discussions and consequently the text. Drawing on notes from the field in Cyprus, this paper discusses the importance of participating in technocratic processes with technical as well as ethical arguments, the possibilities such participation offers, as well as the limitations and obstacles for the protection of the marine commons against privatization.