Seychelles Marine Spatial Plan.

This Seychelles Marine Spatial Plan (SMSP) provides for completing Seychelles’ first comprehensive marine plan for marine protections, climate change adaptation, and a sustainable Blue Economy. The overall goal of the government-led spatial planning initiative aims at developing and implementing an integrated marine plan to optimise the sustainable use and effective management of the Seychelles marine environment while ensuring the social, cultural, and economic well-being of its people. The Marine Spatial Plan covers the following matters: summary of the global best practices and international standards for adopting the Plan; guiding principles, summary of the milestones, and phased approach to achieve the 30% marine protection goal; information for the SMSP zoning design, including the zoning methodology and framework that supported the development of zoning designs for the SMSP objectives, according to the legislation of the country; designation of marine protected areas and allowed activities; measures for ensuring biodiversity protection. This Plan develops targeted actions for the achievement of its goals: identification of new marine protected areas for 30% of the Exclusive Economic Zone and Territorial Sea by representation of species and habitats; development of allowable activities tables with sustainability criteria for the Plan zones to support the Blue Economy Agenda throughout the Seychelles coastal and marine environments; development of climate change risk mapping for coral reefs and coastal protection to better understand the most important climate risks in Seychelles, and better understand options for adaptation measures and feasibility of implementing them.
The Plan also details the following measures: fisheries analyses methods; improvement of fisheries' sustainability; development of zoning methodology; description and management of marine national parks; monitoring, control and surveillance activities.