The Latvian case study aims at the creation of a tool for facilitating identification of new off-shore Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and re-assessment of location of the existing MPAs in the MSP context. New MPAs are necessary to ensure adequate protection of highly valuable benthic habitats providing wide range of “ecosystem services”, in particular to ensure connectivity of MPA networks on national and international scales. The tool will focus on the assessment of impacts and value of alterative sea use options (e.g. MPA vs off-shore wind farm), which will be implemented based on the Multi-criteria Analysis (MCA) methodology and involving interaction with stakeholders.
