A novel best practices approach: The MARLISCO case

•A decision-support method that promotes stakeholder engagement is presented.•The DeCyDe-4 method and tools can be used to evaluate and select best practices.•Attributes that define best practices for minimizing marine litter are discussed.•Practices that promote active citizenship and co-responsibility are favoured.

Research that was undertaken to identify and evaluate best practices that can effectively minimise the amount of marine litter in European Seas is presented. Best practices were approached in a novel way that aimed to maximise the impact and added value of the FP7-funded project MARLISCO. The practices served as a tool to enhance the active participation and build capacity in key actors through the implementation of the innovative, dedicatedly-developed decision support tool, DeCyDe-4-Marlisco.This paper also presents the key 'preference' attributes of successful marine litter management practices and provides a snapshot of the key characteristics of the recorded best practices as a means of helping the reader, and particularly decision makers, recognise what would make their marine litter management efforts more successful.

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