A delegation from the Institute of Marine Research, Norway Environment Agency and Norwegian Embassy, is in the city for brainstorming on the Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) project that has identified Puducherry and Lakshadweep as pilot sites. The delegation called on Chief Minister N. Rangasamy and discussed about the MSP project. India and Norway had inked a MoU in 2019 to launch the Indo-Norway Integrated Ocean Initiative and to jointly work in the area of Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) in the oceanic space for the next five years, P. Priyatarshny, Director of the Department of Science, Technology and Environment (DSTE), said. As part of the MSP, the two countries have decided to extend support for sustainable ocean resources utilisation to advance economic and social development in coastal areas and to evolve a plan to ensure that human activities at sea take place in an efficient, safe and sustainable manner in areas such as energy, transportation, fisheries, aquaculture and tourism. The MSP is being implemented by the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) through National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR) for India. The NCCR will develop the MSP framework for Puducherry and Lakshadweep. In the future, MSP framework of these two environmentally critical areas can be replicated to other coastal regions of the country. The World Bank and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) have expressed interest in supporting MoES in conducting the MSP, a societal-beneficial initiative for India’s coastal regions. As part of the MSP programme, Puducherry Coastal Zone Management Authority, Department of Science, Technology and Environment, in collaboration with NCCR, organised brainstorming sessions over two days on ‘Tourism and Coastal Regulation Zone/ Ecology’. The DSTE Secretary and Director, delegates from Norway, officials from MoES, The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and its research arm, The National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management, Chennai, representatives from Government of Lakshadweep, stakeholder departments of Government of Puducherry and NGOs participated in the event.
