30 October 2026
A new MEDIGREEN booklet explores how cultural heritage, community identity, ecological responsibility and shared knowledge can inform Maritime Spatial Planning and support the European Green Deal.
What makes a stretch of coastline meaningful to the people who live there? It may be the knowledge shared between generations of fishers, the landscape that shapes a community’s identity, or a commitment to protecting marine life for its own sake. These relationships influence how people understand, use and care for the sea, yet they can be difficult to capture in conventional planning assessments.
MEDIGREEN’s new booklet, “Exploring non-economic values of key marine sectors and nature protection: an MSP approach”, offers a framework for making these dimensions more visible. Developed under the leadership of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, with contributions from project partners, it examines fisheries, aquaculture, offshore renewable energy and nature protection.
The publication addresses policymakers, planning authorities, marine and coastal stakeholders, and the wider public. Its central question is practical: how can Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) recognise and integrate values that extend beyond monetary considerations?
Six dimensions of value
The booklet groups non-economic values into six categories: ecological and environmental; social and community; ethical and intrinsic; aesthetic and inspirational; cultural and heritage; and educational and knowledge.
Together, these categories encompass relationships ranging from habitat protection and community well-being to traditional ecological knowledge, artistic inspiration and responsibility towards future generations. Non-economic values can also coexist with economic benefits: recreation, for example, may support livelihoods while providing opportunities for learning, enjoyment and connection with nature.
The framework draws on a literature review, structured interviews with 37 experts, a public questionnaire available in five languages that received 609 responses, and a collection of good practices. Bringing these sources together allows the booklet to compare expert assessments, public perceptions and practical experiences.
Different sectors, different relationships with the sea
Nature protection received particularly positive assessments across the value categories. Participants recognised its contribution to education, knowledge and wider social relationships, alongside its environmental role.
Fisheries stood out for their cultural and heritage dimensions, especially the connections between small-scale fishing, traditional knowledge and community identity. These findings underline the importance of considering fishing communities’ relationships with places and practices when discussing changes to marine uses.
Aquaculture produced more varied expert assessments. The booklet highlights the diversity of production systems and cautions against treating the sector as a uniform activity: shellfish, seaweed and intensive fed-species farming have different environmental characteristics and relationships with coastal communities.
For offshore renewable energy, aesthetic and cultural concerns emerged as important challenges. The findings point to the need for early engagement with coastal residents and sea users, including consideration of seascape character, sense of place and coexistence with fisheries.
These assessments describe perceptions within the study. They provide a starting point for more detailed, locally grounded discussions rather than a universal ranking of sectors.
From shared values to planning practice
The booklet connects its framework to examples across the Mediterranean and beyond. These include stewardship at Torre Guaceto Marine Protected Area in Italy, participatory monitoring of vulnerable sharks and rays in Algeria, recovery of abandoned fishing gear in Tunisia, and documentation of maritime language and heritage among Croatian fishers.
Such examples show how conservation, knowledge exchange and cultural continuity can become part of the same planning conversation. They also illustrate why participation should create opportunities for communities to contribute their knowledge and priorities throughout the process.
For planners, the publication recommends introducing non-economic values into stakeholder consultations and assessments from the outset. This can help identify shared concerns across sectors, alongside areas of disagreement. It also calls for approaches tailored to different activities and places, stronger recognition of small-scale fisheries’ cultural contributions, and greater attention to the social and cultural dimensions of offshore energy development.
Supporting a shared Mediterranean transition
The booklet argues that recognising non-economic values can help support the European Green Deal by strengthening stewardship, participation and trust. Educational and knowledge values emerge as a particularly promising connection across the sectors examined, highlighting opportunities for ocean literacy, participatory research and intergenerational learning.
For MEDIGREEN, this work contributes to a Mediterranean approach to maritime sustainability that takes seriously the diverse relationships between people and the sea. Making those relationships visible gives planners a broader basis for discussing trade-offs and shaping decisions with coastal communities.
Explore the navigator companion (also at the bottom of the page).
