Governance prospects for maritime spatial planning in the tropical atlantic compared to EU case studies

Maritime spatial planning (MSP) is a governance approach that has been applauded for its promise to reconcile human uses and conservation, and is now widely implemented in member states of the European Union (EU), as well as in other countries in the Global North, like Canada, the United States and Australia. Five years ago, very few countries in the Global South seemed to be engaged in MSP. The Atlantic Ocean assumes the status of a major ecosystem and has geopolitical importance in the context of EU and is even more strengthened by the long-term political cooperation with the Tropical Atlantic countries regarding maritime affairs. The PADDLE project (EU RISE) aims to assess, in a north-south context, precisely how countries on the “Atlantic Boarder”, namely Senegal, Cape Verde and Brazil, encompass this trend towards MSP within their legal, institutional and political frameworks, following blue economy options and blue growth strategies. This contribution is an updated output of an international PADDLE project expert assessment, held in Brazil in February 2019, following two years of research. It intends to summarize the main conclusions on the state of the art and MSP prospects in the Tropical Atlantic, also referring to the ongoing MSP process in several EU countries. Political, legal and institutional frameworks enhancing MSP were presented and future trends for tropical MSP governance discussed.