Marine Licensing and Nature-Based Solutions: Exploring Opportunities for Integration

Marine Licensing and Nature-Based Solutions

The Marine Management Organisation (MMO) recently published a set of top tips for marine licensing that highlight practical considerations for applicants and stakeholders. This creates a timely opportunity to consider how marine licensing could also support the delivery of nature-based solutions (NBS).

In earlier work, in collaboration with ABPmer, we explored how the marine licensing system could better enable NBS. The study identified 12 opportunities for the licensing process to support nature-based approaches, including three focused specifically on guidance and training.

The study combined a review of existing marine licensing guidance with a wider assessment of relevant literature. It also included interviews with colleagues at the MMO to ensure that operational perspectives informed the analysis.

We also drew on our expertise in evaluation methods to create a systems map of marine licensing in England. This showed the system’s key components and how they relate to one another, helping to identify where improvements could support the integration of NBS.

Overall, the findings highlight how marine licensing could play a more active role in enabling NBS in practice, by identifying practical opportunities for change within the existing system.

To learn more about the opportunities identified and their implications, please read the full report here.