Governments falling short of protecting the world’s oceans

Protections for the world’s oceans need strengthening, a new report suggests.

At COP15, the world’s nations agreed to protect 30% of their land and sea by the end of the decade in a campaign known as 30 by 30. However, new research looking at the 100 largest marine protected areas (MPAs) found that many risk becoming ‘paper parks’ without legal backing and enforcement.

Even where MPAs are effective, they’re not protecting all of the world’s oceans evenly. For example, very few are found in the coastal waters of the northern hemisphere despite the abundance of sea life which lives there.

Beth Pike is the director of the Marine Conservation Institute's Marine Protection Atlas programme, and the lead author of the study, published in the journal Conservation Letters.

“MPAs can deliver significant benefits to people, nature, and the planet, but unfortunately, we see vast gaps between the amount of ocean covered by MPAs and the strength of those protections in many cases,” Beth said. “Quality – not just quantity – should indicate progress toward reaching the goal of protecting at least 30% of the ocean by 2030.”

While the study paints a pessimistic view of ocean protections to date, it does note that the passing of the High Seas Treaty will allow new MPAs will be established in international waters. It’s hoped these will drive further action from countries around the world and bring 30 by 30 closer to reality.

The issues with MPAs

The oceans are one of Earth’s last great wildernesses – a massive region of our planet that has yet to be fully explored or understood, with hundreds of species from the deep sea and seabed still being described every year.

But time is rapidly running out to discover this underwater world. The oceans face a unique cocktail of challenges, ranging from unprecedented levels of marine heat to industrial fisheries that are pulling fish from the sea faster than they can repopulate.

In theory, MPAs can help to address these challenges. These regions currently cover around 8% of the ocean and are areas where wildlife can shelter and adapt to the pressures of the Anthropocene.

However, the research shows that this isn’t always the case. Looking at the 100 largest MPAs, which cover around 90% of the area of all MPAs combined, the researchers found that only a third of the 100 largest MPAs received high or total protection from human impacts.

This means that only 9.4 million square kilometres, or an area larger than the USA, are covered by effective, large MPAs. Overall, this represents just 2.6% of the oceans.

Another third of these areas were found to allow damaging activities like exploration for fossil fuels or industrial fishing. The rest of the large MPAs were yet to be implemented, meaning there were little or no difference for wildlife living inside or outside them.

The report also raised concerns about where these MPAs are currently located, with over 60% currently found in remote areas. These are often overseas territories, with 11 countries including the UK, France and the USA having large proportions of their MPAs far away from their home shores.

While this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it means that large parts of the oceans closest to where people live have very few protections. As a result, there are no well-protected, large MPAs in the northern Atlantic and Pacific oceans and very few in the waters around the Arctic or southern Africa.

As a consequence, the marine life best known to most people is probably outside a large protected area.

Protecting the high seas

While there’s work to do on MPAs within territorial waters, the paper does highlight that there’s now the opportunity to create protected sites in areas beyond national borders.

Because of a lack of agreement on putting MPAs in international waters, only certain areas around Antarctica have historically been granted protection. But the High Seas Treaty agreed in March 2023 now allows for this to happen more widely, and could lead to the protection of regions and species which have been vulnerable to overexploitation.

The treaty has now been signed by almost half of the world’s nations, but it’s not yet come into force. For this to happen, it has to be voted into law by 60 countries around the world. Only four have done this to date.

The study calls for the high seas treaty to be quickly ratified so that new MPAs can be introduced in all oceans of the world. Without it, the authors, including Dr Kirsten Grorud-Colvert, warn that the 30 by 30 target won’t be achieved.

“Successfully conserving ocean biodiversity from the consequences of destructive activities can only be achieved with a clear understanding of global progress,” Kirsten says. “Our assessment identifies challenges but also points to a clear, evidence-based path to achieve effective protection and lasting, just support for a healthy and resilient ocean.”