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The US government advanced its Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning (CMSP) efforts in last week's three-day National Ocean Council workshop. Private sector input was limited to the one-day public session.
The ocean business community's potential to shape CMSP is diminishing as the process continues without a broad, cross-sectoral national private sector effort to organise and engage in CMSP on the same scale as other stakeholders.
The ocean business community - provider of jobs, goods and services of inestimable value to the US economy - has yet to broadly grasp the urgent need and opportunity to engage in CMSP, a major new process with enormous potential to affect commercial ocean activities.
The National Business Forum on marine spaitial planning - the first-ever business community meeting on MSP - will change this by developing a strategy and action plan for industry involvement in CMSP on 13-14 July in Washington D.C.
Leadership companies and associations that care about the future of access to ocean space and resources are already committed to participate in the forum, including: ExxonMobil, Teck Resources, Shell, National Ocean Industries Association (NOIA), Dive Equipment Manufacturing Association (DEMA), Blank Rome, BP. These and other participants know the importance of coordinated, pro-active industry involvement of MSP and encourage other companies to participate in this unprecedented business gathering.
The forum programme includes: a unique government update on CMSP directly to the business from senior administration officials, briefings on MSP from the country's leading experts in business, government and environment NGO's, case studies on the business experience in MSP in the US and abroad.
The forum will close with a two-hour session - for business representatives only - to develop the industry strategy and action plan for engaging in CMSP as it moves forward. The programme for the National Business Forum on MSP is available at www.oceancouncil.org.
The forum is being organised by the WOC in partnership with Battelle Memorial Institute, which became a WOC Founding Member in 2010, and with the sponsorship of the National Ocean Industries Association (NOIA).
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