The 4th Capacity4MSP project platform’s partner meeting was held online on 23 November 2021. This meeting’s focus was to share the updates of the project activities, set the goals for the upcoming four project implementation months and discuss the project result dissemination. Main discussion topics are listed below.

Under the Interreg BSR programme project platform's 'Strengthening the capacity of MSP stakeholders and decision makers' (Capacity4MSP) activity 'Capitalisation of current maritime spatial planning (MSP) activities and projects' a report has been developed synthesizing the experience from MSP projects in the Baltic Sea Region and the resultant policy messages.

How does maritime spatial planning contribute to territorial cohesion of the Baltic Sea Region? As one of the tasks for the policy area Spatial Planning of the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region (EUSBSR), coordinated by the VASAB and HELCOM Secretariats, maritime spatial planning is highlighted by the recent Let's Communicate project article.

Following the internal preparatory work, the series of stakeholder co-creation activities within the update of the VASAB Long-Term Perspective for the Territorial Development of the Baltic Sea Region have been launched this autumn. The first external stakeholder workshop on the update of the VASAB Long-Term Perspective was held on 28th September within the EUSBSR Annual Forum. Participants of this workshop discussed how the Baltic Sea Region (BSR) could look like in 2040 based on the four metaphors that were identified already in the first VASAB vision in 1994: Pearls, Strings, Patches and System. Please, find the outcomes of the workshop HERE.

Hope you all are enjoying nice and relaxing summer! So far, this year has been very active despite the lockdowns and restrictions due to the pandemic. After adoption of the Methodology, VASAB launched the update of its Long-Term Perspective for the Territorial Development of the Baltic Sea Region (LTP) – strategic spatial planning document targeted towards territorial coherence in 2040. The update of the Long-Term Perspective will take place by the end of 2022 and is carried out together with support of commissioned experts from Spatial Foresight and Nordregio.

Submit your application by 1 August 2021. This new call for project proposals of the Youth4Ocean Forum is designed to promote the ideas of young changemakers in the Baltic Sea basin region. Are you between 16 and 30 years old and do you represent the Baltic Sea Region? Do you organise conservation activities with children, other young people or a local community? Or maybe you have a project in mind to raise awareness of consumers on sustainable seafood or to use marine resources in the Baltic Sea sustainably? Or something completely different that you think has the potential to change things in the area?…