The National Biodiversity Future Center (NBFC), financed with PNRR funds, was created with the ambitious objective of establishing a permanent multidisciplinary community at national level, dedicated to the study of Italian biodiversity and the development and collection of knowledge material and immaterial, useful for building a solid scientific basis for:

• evaluate the current and future vulnerability of the different components of the ecosystem
• fill the main knowledge gaps
• implement effective intervention programs aimed at preserving and restoring biodiversity and raising awareness in the country of its importance.

The Centre, organized according to a “Hub and Spokes” model with the Hub coordinated by the CNR, is made up of a total of eight Nodes, each of which explores specific research topics and develops various integrated activities.

As part of Node 2 of the Center “Solutions to reverse marine biodiversity loss and manage marine resources sustainably”, aimed at implementing concrete actions to reduce anthropogenic pressure on marine biodiversity in the Mediterranean, developing and testing solutions to counteract the loss of biodiversity due to activities such as fishing, navigation and tourism, the A4 activity “Biodiversity mainstreaming in Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP4BIODIVERSITY)” aims, through Maritime Spatial Planning (PSM), to encourage sustainable and lasting development of the maritime economy sea, simultaneously safeguarding biodiversity and marine ecosystems, as expressly required by the international reference framework on the sustainable use of the seas and protection of biodiversity in marine spaces, including the Horizon Europe mission “Starfish Mission 2030: Restore our Ocean and Waters”, the “Aichi Biodiversity Targets” of the tenth COP and in particular objective 11, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda and in particular objective 14 “Conserve and use oceans, seas and marine resources in a sustainable manner”, the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) and the “Biodiversity Strategy 2030”.

The primary spatial reference for the implementation of the A4 activity is represented by the Italian marine waters, divided into the three maritime areas covered by the national plans currently being finalized (Adriatic, Ionian – Central Mediterranean, Tyrrhenian – Western Mediterranean), with a necessary projection on the Mediterranean Sea in its entirety to take into account the complexity of the ecological, socioeconomic and geopolitical aspects involved in the MSP process.