RECALLING that the health of marine or coastal ecosystems is today seriously threatened by the impacts of human land-based and marine-based activities, including climate and global change, and that the pressure from these activities jeopardises their integrity;

RECALLING that the sea and the coasts are historically places used for human activities and the development of new uses and that the intensification and diversification of these activities lead to an increased risk of land-use conflict and biodiversity and geodiversity loss;

CONSIDERING therefore that it is necessary to organise these activities in a consistent, sustainable manner in order to reduce these conflicts and this biodiversity and geodiversity loss;

RECALLING that these maritime activities may indeed be associated with indirect, direct and sometimes irreversible impacts, on the natural capital, and that these individual impacts are added to so-called “cumulative impacts”, resulting from the sum and the combination of these individual impacts, particularly in the context of climate change;

ALSO RECALLING that these cumulative impacts very often exceed the simple addition of the individual impacts and that there may be impacts well beyond the maritime and coastal territories where these activities are carried out;

ALSO RECALLING that, although marine space is divided up into areas under national and international jurisdiction, it is also a space where all states have common interests;

FURTHER RECALLING that, whilst territories with maritime and coastal areas can legitimately develop in a sustainable manner the riches associated with these ecosystems, they have an important responsibility for their protection;

FINALLY RECALLING that the states are committed to the integrated management of coastal zones and the planning of maritime areas through the establishment of adapted governance and strategies, including spatial planning, in line with the recommendations of the Rio Summit and in view of attaining the Sustainable Development Goals, in particular the one on aquatic life, as well as the Aichi Biodiversity Targets;

RECOGNISING the work and conclusions of international bodies (UNESCO's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC)) and regional bodies regarding the planning of maritime areas;

CONSIDERING the need to apply an ecosystem approach on the scale of marine regions, together with the distribution area of migratory species, in order to establish adapted governance and strategies, including spatial planning, that are efficient for the sustainable development of marine and coastal activities; and to fully understand the cumulative impacts of all current and future activities whether or not they are subject to authorisations, declarations or environmental assessments; and

FURTHER CONSIDERING that the planning of marine areas is a tool that allows for the reinforcement of the necessary protection of marine and coastal ecosystems through the a priori assessment of impacts, including cumulative impacts, and for the anticipation of the needs for compensation areas, for restoration or protection in order to achieve no net loss of biodiversity and geodiversity;