Task
1: Support the World Bank team in the development of Stakeholder Consultations and
Coordination Platform for MSP
The first activity of the Technical Assistance includes the following
sub-activities:
·
Identify key stakeholders and develop the
related stakeholder engagement plan to ensure the full commitment and ownership of the MSP approach /
process. Among other elements, the plan will include:
o
Setting up a consultation and coordination
platform, bringing
together all the stakeholders, in order to encourage ownership of the planning
process, generate the confidence of stakeholders and decision-makers and
encourage voluntary respect of the rules and regulations.
o
Organizing stakeholder consultation workshops at sectoral level and with multisectoral
groups (especially decision makers and managers) and end users / beneficiaries
(communities using coastal and marine resources and industry practitioners)
during the process.
From an institutional point of view, the key sectoral ministries to be
involved are the Ministry of Environment, Sustainable Development and Congo Basin,
the Ministry of Economy, Planning and Regional Integration, and the Ministry of
Agriculture, Livestock, and Fisheries. It is also recommended to involve the
authorities in charge of coastal planning, in order to ensure consistency
between coastal land use planning and maritime spatial planning. NGOs,
professional associations, the private sector, scientists and civil society at
large must also be involved. The consultation process will be coordinated and
cleared with the WB team in consultation with the key sectoral ministries.
Task
2: Initiate a Marine Spatial Planning Approach with a focus on fisheries and
aquaculture
This task will build on the findings of the World Bank Country Climate
and Development Report (CCDR) for the Republic of Congo and pave the way
to developing a Multi-Sector Investment Plan (MSIP) through the development of
sector like fisheries and aquaculture.
To perform this second task, the stakeholder platform will support the
identification of the strategic directions, multisectoral priorities,
trade-offs, responsibilities in terms of analysis, management and monitoring.
The main activities related to the application of MSP tools include:
·
Define the relevant scale, the limits and
criteria to be considered to conduct the Marine Spatial Planning process in a
selected site and have a first assessment of the MSP zone.
·
Collect available data and information: selected
site and its activities (perceptions, activities, impacts, spatial
distribution, conflicts and interactions), existing regulations in the
different sectors acting at the site level, characterization of stakeholders
useful in the MSP process.
·
Analyze, with the support of the national GIS
expert, the current conditions of the selected site based on available data and
information that could be gathered to initiate the:
o Mapping of the ecological, environmental and
oceanographic conditions,
o
Mapping
of the information on human activities. Significant human uses include, but are
not limited to, commercial and recreational fishing; maritime transport;
seaside tourism and sand mining,
o
Identification
and assessment of potential conflicts and compatibilities/interactions between
existing human uses on the one hand, and between them and the environment on
the other. At this stage, it is important to connect the offshore activities
with the onshore communities, in order to understand the causes and effects.![]()
A particular attention will be given to:
·
Analysis of ecosystem parameters (ecological,
fisheries, economic, etc.) and the potential links between these parameters,
·
Identification of ecosystem services in the
MSP zone,
·
Identification of the links at the land-sea
interface,
·
Identification of the natural values of the
area (habitats, marine resources, etc.),
·
Assessment of pressures on the environment in
the MSP zone,
·
Evaluation of conflicts and compatibilities
between human activities and the environment,
·
Contribution to the definition of the relevant
scale for the conduct of the Maritime spatial planning.