What is the Framework for Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning?
The framework for Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning (CMSP) is a new, integrated and proactive approach to better determine how the ocean, coasts, and Great Lakes are sustainably used and protected now and in the future. It moves us away from the current sector-by-sector, statute by statute approach toward a management that can properly account for cumulative effects, sustain multiple ecosystem services, and explicitly evaluate the tradeoffs associated with proposed alternative uses. The framework defines national goals and principles for CMSP and offers a roadmap for comprehensive, integrated, ecosystem-based planning that will address conservation, economic activity, national and homeland security, user conflict, and sustainable use.
