Why integrated Spatial planning?
Integrated Spatial Planning (verb):
A coordinated, cross-sectoral method of land and seascape planning that integrates biodiversity, development, and climate priorities to guide sustainable land use. The method involves participatory decision-making and future scenario analysis to align conservation with national and local objectives.
Integrated Spatial Planning (ISP) engages stakeholders to define conservation, development, food security, and climate resilience needs. Then, planners provide governments and conservation implementers with decision-making tools, including maps, future land use scenarios, and biodiversity projections.
The Differences
Multi-Sectoral and Participatory
Traditional planning often isolates sectors like agriculture, infrastructure, or conservation. ISP analyses include multiple sectors to help us understand trade-offs and find solutions that balance goals across government ministries, local communities, and development partners. Integrated plans leverage the knowledge of local communities, Indigenous peoples, private sector actors, and policymakers to co-create strategies that are locally relevant and politically feasible. This fosters trust and boosts the chances of successful implementation.
Example: Instead of planning protected areas separately from renewable energy zones, ISP maps both to find areas of overlap, conflict, or synergy.
2. Scenario-Based and Forward-Looking
Instead of relying on current conditions, ISPs use data and models to explore future scenarios for population growth, climate change, and energy demand. This helps governments and NGOs make choices that are resilient over time, not just practical now. ISP asks: “What will this landscape look like in 10, 20, or 50 years — and how can we act now to shape that future?”
Fitting with Global Targets
The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) is a global commitment to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030. It sets out an ambitious vision for a nature-positive future by 2050, integrating biodiversity into all sectors of society and linking conservation with sustainable development, equity, and climate resilience. One of the key innovations of the GBF is its comprehensive, action-oriented structure, which lays out 23 measurable targets to drive coordinated efforts across scales and sectors.
Target One of the Global Biodiversity Framework calls for all land and sea areas to be under participatory, integrated, and biodiversity-inclusive spatial planning. By coordinating where and how different land and sea uses occur, integrated spatial planning helps countries balance conservation, development, and climate needs.
Global agreements think that ISPs are crucial to protecting biodiversity. As ISP practitioners, we see how it can benefit human needs when we zoom in to country scales.