Small Island, Big Seas. Malta's MSP Challenges at the 3rd Silk Road MSP Workshop
IOI was represented at the Maritime Spatial Planning Cooperation Workshop by Adam Gauci (University of Malta), IOI Malta associate, and a long-standing expert faculty member of the IOI Ocean Governance Training Programmes offered in Malta and Turkmenistan. Prof Gauci (Department of Geosciences) also highlighted Malta’s efforts at the Beijing Workshop which brought together international stakeholders to exchange good practices and strengthen collaboration on MSP and sustainable ocean development.
For a small island nation with a busy sea, smart planning matters. Malta’s marine space is limited, intensively used, and home to extensive Natura 2000 protected areas. Only a small portion of national waters is shallow enough for traditional anchored activities, so evidence-based marine spatial planning (MSP), that is, deciding what happens and where, is essential to reduce conflicts, safeguard biodiversity, and support a sustainable blue economy.
In addition to the cutting-edge technical considerations presented by the speaker, the workshop also served to showcase capacity-building opportunities available through the collaboration between the International Ocean Institute (IOI), the IOI Malta training Centre and the University of Malta. These include the four-week IOI Regional Training Programme in Ocean Governance that covers MSP, integrated coastal zone management, law, and negotiation, and many other opportunities were also presented.
While in Beijing, A Gauci was invited to visit China’s National Marine Environmental Forecasting Centre (NMEFC), the national operational and research hub under the Ministry of Natural Resources responsible for marine forecasting and disaster early warning. NMEFC develops and operates models for waves, storm surges, tsunamis, sea ice, and ocean circulation, integrates satellite and in-situ observations, and issues public marine forecasts and warnings.