Maritime Spatial Planning – A Board Game for Stakeholder Involvement

Reconciling Tourism Development and Conservation Outcomes Through Marine Spatial Planning for a Saudi Giga-Project in the Red Sea (The Red Sea Project, Vision 2030)

“…9 of the 2014/89/EU Directive: "Member States shall establish means of public participation by informing all interested parties and by consulting the relevant stakeholders and authorities, and the public concerned, at an early stage in the development of maritime spatial plans, in accordance with relevant provisions established in Union legislation." However, we consider that stakeholder involvement in MSP often means tokenistic participation in a very early stage of the planning process or at the end of the process, whereas stakeholders should be onboard during the whole planning process (Pomeroy and Douvere, 2008;Ehler and Douvere, 2009;Gopnik et al, 2012;Flannery et al, 2018;Keijser et al, 2018).…”

Stakeholder Engagement in Maritime Spatial Planning: The Efficacy of a Serious Game Approach

“…At the time of writing, the MSP Challenge brand-a not for profit initiative-holds several types of serious games; a role-playing game, advanced digital games, a table top strategy board game and a playful discussion method called the Living Q. The MSP Challenge board game has been designed to let stakeholders experience some of the dynamic and complex interactions in ecosystem-based MSP and to start 'thinking and talking' about the interrelations among different marine uses and objectives [34,35].…”

“…We use the following indicators to measure efficacy: the reported perception of learning about MSP, players' satisfaction ratings and the uptake of the game in the MSP community. The main research questions are: [34]. The idea behind the board game was to communicate in an engaging manner the emerging concepts of ecosystem-based MSP, the European Blue Growth Agenda (BG), and Good Environmental Status (GES) to the Short Sea Shipping community [34,35].…”

“…Dozens of institutions have been involved in its further development and dissemination. to let stakeholders experience some of the dynamic and complex interactions in ecosystem-based MSP and to start 'thinking and talking' about the interrelations among different marine uses and objectives [34,35].…”

“…It was first played in Amsterdam in February 2016 with around 30 stakeholders at a high-level meeting on Short Sea Shipping as part of the Netherlands' EU Presidency [34]. The idea behind the board game was to communicate in an engaging manner the emerging concepts of ecosystem-based MSP, the European Blue Growth Agenda (BG), and Good Environmental Status (GES) to the Short Sea Shipping community [34,35]. The simplicity of the game made it a powerful tool for engaging a wider range and greater diversity of people.…”