Marine spatial planning (MSP) has emerged as a powerful tool. MSP, commonly defined as a public process of analyzing and allocating human activities in marine areas to achieve ecological, economic, and social goals, offers a strategic approach to organizing marine space.

MSP facilitates harmonious interactions between various human uses (such as fishing, aquaculture, shipping, tourism, and renewable energy) and between these activities and the marine environment.

While the concept of marine protected areas (MPAs) has been present for nearly half a century, with origins in marine conservation, MSP has evolved beyond its conservation-centric roots.

As early as the 1960s and early 1970s, initially pioneered by Australia's Great Barrier Reef Marine Park zoning plan, MSP has expanded globally to address the increasingly complex challenges of managing conflicting uses of the sea, especially in crowded and industrialized seas.

Viet Nam is located at the west coast of the Pacific Ocean.  Its marine area is about one million square kilometers (three times larger than the mainland area), ranked 27th out of 157 coastal countries and island nations. Vietnam has a coastline of more than 3,260 km, and there are more than 3,000 large and small islands in Vietnam’s sea.

Vietnam's sea is rich in natural resources, has abundant aquatic resources, many important ecosystems such as coral reefs, seagrass beds, mangrove forests and high biodiversity, has an important economic, geopolitical and defense and security position in the region and the world; is an important premise for Vietnam to develop sustainably and become a strong maritime nation.

In Viet Nam, the inappropriate exploitation of marine areas has led to environmental issues, including coastal water pollution, depletion of marine resources, and degradation of marine ecosystems and biodiversity.

Recognizing the critical importance of sustainably managing marine resources, Viet Nam embarked on its own MSP journey. This endeavor, formalized through Resolution No. 22/NQ-CP on July 24, 2020, marked a significant step towards achieving the goals of sustainable marine economic development.

Despite facing various challenges and limitations during its implementation, Viet Nam's National Marine Spatial Planning process has made substantial progress. Through the establishment of a Planning Steering Committee and a multidisciplinary expert group, alongside widespread consultation activities, on 28th of June 2024, at the 7th Session, the 15th of the National Assembly, Resolution No.139/2024/QH15 on the National Marine Spatial Planning for the period 2021-2030, vision to 2050 (N-MSP) has been approved by the National Assembly.

This knowledge brief aims to distill key insights and lessons learned from Viet Nam's process of developing its national MSP (N-MSP) following promulgation of the Resolution, shedding light on potential challenges, effective strategies, and preliminary recommended approaches.