Marine Protected Areas: Increasing the coverage
Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, Australia, is a network of fully protected areas within a larger protected area, designed to protect all habitats in the region.
© WWF-Canon / Jürgen Freund
© WWF-Canon / Jürgen Freund
Expanding current networks of Marine Protected Areas
Keeping track of MPAs
Until recently, comprehensive global data on MPAs were not readily available. But a new database - MPA Global - is now providing a more robust baseline of current MPA coverage.
This will help advance the global MPA network and allow implementation of national, regional, and international MPA commitments to be monitored.
According to the database, in 2005 around 4,600 MPAs had been designated, protecting around 2.2 million km2, or 0.6%, of the world’s oceans.
MPA Global was developed from the World Database on Protected Areas, and is the result of a formal collaboration between WWF, the Sea Around Us Project at the University of British Columbia (SAUP, an activity initiated and funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts), and the UN Environment Programme - World Conservation Monitoring Centre.
MPA Global is fully and freely searchable. Park managers, governments, and other stakeholders can also easily improve and broaden the data.
This will help advance the global MPA network and allow implementation of national, regional, and international MPA commitments to be monitored.
According to the database, in 2005 around 4,600 MPAs had been designated, protecting around 2.2 million km2, or 0.6%, of the world’s oceans.
MPA Global was developed from the World Database on Protected Areas, and is the result of a formal collaboration between WWF, the Sea Around Us Project at the University of British Columbia (SAUP, an activity initiated and funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts), and the UN Environment Programme - World Conservation Monitoring Centre.
MPA Global is fully and freely searchable. Park managers, governments, and other stakeholders can also easily improve and broaden the data.
The world's leaders have recognized the vital role that Marine Protected Areas play in safeguarding marine ecosystems and local economies. We are working to ensure they keep their MPA commitments.
The use of protected zones in marine areas is not new. For centuries, communities have closed areas by tradition or law to protect their resources and livelihoods. But it’s only recently that Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) have entered the international political arena.One of the few commitments made by world leaders at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in 2002 was to address the current inadequate protection of our oceans and coasts by creating representative networks of MPAs by 2012.
Our work
WWF is working hard to make sure these commitments are honoured. Our long-term goal is that by 2020, the world will have networks of ecologically representative and well-managed MPAs covering at least 10% of the seas.
We help governments and local communities select which marine areas are the most important to protect and what kind of protection measures suit them best, and then help with MPA implementation. We also cooperate with researchers to advance the science of how to design networks of MPAs.
Priority habitats and regions
WWF has identified several priority marine habitats for protection, including:
We have also identified around 20 focal marine ecoregions, which include priority habitats and encompass some of the world’s most sensitive and biologically diverse areas. It is here that we particularly work to establish representative networks of protected areas.
We are additionally working to establish MPAs on the High Seas and in the vast Southern Ocean.
Results so far
WWF has been working on marine conservation for over 30 years. In the last few years alone, we have helped achieve protection for more than 200,000km2 of marine areas around the world, including coral reefs, seagrass meadows, mangroves, fish breeding grounds, and deep-sea habitats.
In all cases, these successes have been due to strong partnerships including local communities, governments, NGOs, and research institutions, all working together towards a common vision to conserve marine ecosystems and the resources they support.
Details for some of our successes are highlighted below and within the different pages of this section.
- coral reefs, mangroves, and seagrass meadows
- deep-sea habitats
- particularly sensitive areas at risk from shipping activities
- breeding grounds for commercially important fish
We have also identified around 20 focal marine ecoregions, which include priority habitats and encompass some of the world’s most sensitive and biologically diverse areas. It is here that we particularly work to establish representative networks of protected areas.
We are additionally working to establish MPAs on the High Seas and in the vast Southern Ocean.
Results so far
WWF has been working on marine conservation for over 30 years. In the last few years alone, we have helped achieve protection for more than 200,000km2 of marine areas around the world, including coral reefs, seagrass meadows, mangroves, fish breeding grounds, and deep-sea habitats.
In all cases, these successes have been due to strong partnerships including local communities, governments, NGOs, and research institutions, all working together towards a common vision to conserve marine ecosystems and the resources they support.
Details for some of our successes are highlighted below and within the different pages of this section.
Establishing a representative MPA network...
WWF has been heavily involved in the creation of a representative network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in the Eastern Africa Marine Ecoregion.
This ecoregion is an area of exceptionally high biodiversity running for 4,600km down the east African coast from southern Somalia to northeast South Africa. A focal marine ecoregion for WWF, it includes one of the most diverse coral, mangrove, and seagrass complexes in the western Indian Ocean.It is also home to around 22 million people, most of whom depend on the coastal seas for their sustenance, livelihoods, and leisure. However these livelihoods, and the area’s biodiversity, are threatened by coastal degradation due to soil erosion, pollution, and poorly controlled tourist activities; heavy exploitation of mangroves for firewood, charcoal production, and food (fish, crustaceans, molluscs); mining of coral reefs for construction materials; overfishing and the use of destructive fishing practices; and the hunting of endangered species such as dugong.
In early work, WWF was involved in the creation of Tanzania's Mafia Island Marine Park, established in 1995 and the country's first marine park. A more recent success was the creation of Quirimbas National Park in 2002 - Mozambique's first national park since independence from Portugal in 1975, for which WWF provided technical and financial support.
Overall the area of MPAs nearly quadrupled from 1995-2003, with 19 MPAs now protecting over 6,000km2 and 5.7% of the continental shelf. Although still a work in progress, this is now a very solid basis for a representative network of MPAs in the ecoregion, protecting all the key habitats.
...and helping local communities
These protected areas are not just helping to conserve biodiversity.It was local people who requested the creation of marine sanctuaries as part of Quirimbas National Park. With a rallying cry of "more fish", 40 local communities were keen to see MPAs established in order to help overfished fish populations recover.
The MPA provides a legal framework for protection as well as a management plan for the park’s marine resources. The benefits are apparent already. Poaching by illegal migrant sailboats has been brought under control, and a recent count showed a trend of increasing fish numbers, size, and diversity in sanctuary areas. This has meant better catches for local fishermen, who capture fish that have "spilled out" of the sanctuaries.
In addition, the process of establishing the marine sanctuaries helped NGOs and local people to engage with Mozambican authorities. This led to a new law making the use of Turtle Excluder Devices (which reduce bycatch of marine turtles) compulsory in the country’s shrimp trawl fleet. As well as saving the lives of up to 5,000 marine turtles per year, the use of TEDs could allow Mozambican fishers to sell their shrimp, the country’s main foreign exchange earner, to the US market.
A future benefit for communities living in Quirimbas National Park is revenue through tourism. With assistance from WWF, the park management is currently implementing its business plan, which projects that tourism-based fees should allow the park to reach financial sustainability within 15 years.
WWF continues to work towards the creation of further MPAs in the ecoregion, as well as on strengthening MPA management and helping local communities. For example, the Rufiji-Mafia-Kilwa Seascape Programme launched in Tanzania in 2005 aims to improve the socio-economic well-being of coastal communities in a 9,000km2 area through sustainable, participatory, and equitable use and protection of their marine and coastal natural resources.
Further information:
- Profile: Eastern Africa Marine Ecoregion
- Brochure: Eastern Africa Marine Ecoregion (pdf)
- Article: Building a marine sanctuary through trust
- Article: Loans for the future
- Profile: Rufiji-Mafia-Kilwa Seascape Programme
