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1. Welcomes the report of the Expert Workshop to Provide Consolidated Practical Guidance and a Toolkit for Marine Spatial Planning, held in Montreal, Canada, from 9 to 11 September 2014,1 and expressesits gratitude to the European Commission for its financial support;
2.Recognizes that marine spatial planning is a participatory tool to facilitate the application of the ecosystem approach, expedite progress towards achieving the Aichi Biodiversity Targets in marine and coastal areas and support mainstreaming of biodiversity into public policies related to human and economic development, and that long-term investment in the development of human and institutional capacity for marine spatial planning-related activities is essential for success;
3. Encourages Parties and invites other Governments, as appropriate and taking into account national circumstances, to apply marine spatial planning to marine and coastal areas within their jurisdiction or enhance existing marine spatial planning initiatives in these areas, and:
(a)To take into account the above-mentioned report, referred to in paragraph 1, and other technical guidance from relevant international and regional organizations and agreements in the implementation of marine spatial planning;
(b)To promote the full and effective participation of indigenous peoples and local communities in the development and implementation of marine spatial planning, in accordance with national legislation;
(c)To link closely to existing efforts to implement integrated marine and coastal area management, marine protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures, as well as strategic environmental assessments, environmental impact assessments, pollution management, fisheries management and management of other economic activities, including tourism;
(d)To engage with relevant stakeholders and sectors as well as indigenous peoples and local communities in the development and implementation of marine spatial planning;
(e)To strengthen the application and further development of the ecosystem approach in marine spatial planning, including the use of ecological, economic and social spatial data and knowledge as well as regional cooperation;
(f)To share their experiences through the clearing-house mechanism of the Convention and other information-sharing mechanisms;
4.Recalls decision XI/18 C and decision XII/23, in particular paragraph 18, requests the Executive Secretary, subject to the availability of resources, and invites relevant organizations, in particular the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the United Nations Environment Programme, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the International Maritime Organization, regional seas conventions and action plans and regional fisheries bodies, to support the national implementation of marine spatial planning, as appropriate, within their competencies, in accordance with national legislation, through collaboration on, among other things, the following activities:
(a)Further consolidate and complement existing guidance on marine and spatial planning, building upon the results of the workshop referred to in paragraph 1 above, through online communication, expert workshops, compilation of case studies, informal interaction among experts and/or expert peer review;
(b)Develop linkages with other work under the Convention or other relevant international and/or regional agreements and programmes;
(c)Explore opportunities to test guidance and best practices and to facilitate capacity development, including through capacity development workshops as well as through on‑the-ground implementation;
(d)Compile national, subregional or regional experiences in the implementation of marine spatial planning, in collaboration with Parties and other Governments, and disseminate them through the clearing-house mechanism of the Convention and relevant online information-sharing mechanisms;
5.Requests the Executive Secretary, subject to the availability of resources, to report on progress in the collaboration referred to in paragraph 4 above to the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice at a meeting held prior to the fourteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties;
6.Recalls paragraph 19 of decision XII/23, and requests the Executive Secretary, subject to available financial resources:
(a)To invite Parties, other Governments and relevant organizations, initiatives and stakeholdersincluding the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, the International Maritime Organization, the International Seabed Authority, the United Nations Environment Programme, regional seas conventions and action plans, regional fishery bodies, indigenous peoples and local communities, to submit, as appropriate, information on national, regional and subregional experiences and lessons learned in the application of marine spatial planning or other measures for enhanced conservation and management, in support of achieving the Aichi Biodiversity Targets in marine and coastal areas;
(b)To compile and synthesize submissions by Parties, other Governments and relevant organizations and stakeholders, along with additional scientific and technical information;
(c)To submit the compilation/synthesis referred to in subparagraph 6(b) above, for consideration by the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice at a future meeting held prior to the fourteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties;
7.Recalling paragraph 76 of decision X/29 and subparagraph 1(b) of decision XI/24 and recognizing the importance of building linkages among existing efforts on various area-based conservation measures within the framework of cross-sectoral and integrated marine spatial planning and implementation in support of achieving Aichi Biodiversity Targets in marine and coastal areas, requests the Executive Secretary, subject to available financial resources, drawing on the existing work by the Executive Secretary, in partnership with relevant organizations, and pursuant to paragraph 10 of decision XI/24:
(a)To compile national experiences and lessons learned on the development, and effective and equitable management, of ecologically representative and well connected systems of marine protected areas and other effective area‑based conservation measures, and their integration into the wider landscapes and seascapes, as an input to an expert workshop;
(b)To organize an expert workshop to consolidate scientific and technical information on various approaches for, and their effectiveness in, assessing the contribution to the achievement of Target 11 of marine protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures as well as their integration into the wider landscapes and seascapes, also considering the implementation of target 5 of Sustainable Development Goal 14;
(c)To submit the compilation of information referred to in subparagraph 7(a) and the report of the expert workshop referred to in subparagraph 7(b) above for consideration by the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice at a future meeting held prior to the fourteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties;
8.Recalling paragraph 25 of decision XI/17, invites Parties, indigenous peoples and local communities, relevant organizations and scientific groups to provide information and experiences regarding criteria for socially or culturally significant marine areas and for their conservation and sustainable use, both in their own right, and, in particular, where they coincide with areas meeting the criteria for ecologically or biologically significant areas or other similar criteria, and requests the Executive Secretary to compile this information and make it available through the clearing-house mechanism;
9.Welcomes the capacity‑building and partnership activities being facilitated by the Executive Secretary through the Sustainable Ocean Initiative at the national, regional and global levels in collaboration with Parties and relevant organizations, and expressesits gratitude to the Governments of Japan, France and the Republic of Korea and many other partners for providing financial and technical support for the implementation of activities related to the Sustainable Ocean Initiative;
10.Invites Parties, other Governments and relevant organizations to cooperate for the timely and effective implementation of capacity development activities through the Sustainable Ocean Initiative;
11.Welcomes the report of the Expert Meeting on Improving Progress Reporting and Working Towards Implementation of Aichi Biodiversity Target 6, held in Rome from 9 to 11 February 2016,2 and encourages Parties, other Governments, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and regional fishery bodies to consider the results of this meeting as a basis for their collaboration and cooperation towards accelerating and monitoring the progress in the implementation of Target 6, in line with the decision on mainstreaming biodiversity in fisheries.3