Marine Protected Areas

The world's oceans are under unprecedented pressure.¹ Climate change, overfishing, pollution, and habitat destruction threaten marine ecosystems that billions of people depend on for food, livelihoods, and cultural identity.²

Marine Protected Areas are our most powerful tool for ocean conservation.³ But having them on paper isn't enough. They need to actually work.

Where the world's MPAs are

Explore the global distribution of marine protected areas. Zoom in to see individual sites and click any marker for details.

Creating an MPA is a political achievement. Making it effective is an operational challenge. Across the globe, MPA managers wrestle with the same fundamental tension: vast ocean areas, limited resources, and mounting pressure to demonstrate that protection is actually delivering results.

Too many MPAs exist only on paper. Without adequate monitoring, enforcement, and evidence of ecological outcomes, even well-intentioned protected areas risk becoming “paper parks”6,7 — boundaries drawn on maps that do little to change what happens beneath the surface.

This guide is built for the people at the center of that challenge. Whether you're managing a well-resourced marine park or stretching a thin budget across thousands of square kilometers, this resource is designed to help you understand the landscape, evaluate your options, and build a monitoring strategy that delivers defensible evidence of protection effectiveness.