Our Ocean Conference Should Build on Recent Conservation Gains

While the past year has brought remarkable progress for ocean conservation, what comes next in terms of implementing and sustaining recent marine protections will determine their success.

In January, the United Nations high seas treaty entered into force, creating the first comprehensive legal framework to protect biodiversity in the nearly two-thirds of the ocean that lies beyond any single country’s jurisdiction. Months earlier, French Polynesia announced the creation of Tainui Ātea, the world’s largest marine protected area (MPA), which includes a network covering more than 1.1 million square kilometers (425,000 square miles) fully safeguarded from extractive activities. French Polynesia President Moetai Brotherson also pledged additional protections by World Ocean Day on 8 June.

These and other recent national commitments represent encouraging progress toward protecting at least 30% of the ocean by 2030, the “30 by 30” target that nearly every country in the world agreed to under the 2022 Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

In fact, earlier this year, global ocean protection reached 10% – though only about 3.5% of the ocean qualifies as fully or highly protected, the levels that scientists say are needed to deliver the greatest conservation, biodiversity and ecosystem benefits.

Of course, announcements alone do not protect the ocean. When governments, scientists, Indigenous peoples and civil society groups gather this month for the 11th Our Ocean Conference in Mombasa, Kenya, the central question will be whether new and existing marine protections will deliver the results their backers promised.

What happens after the announcement

Effective MPAs are long-term arrangements among governments, communities, scientists and other partners who work together over decades to ensure effective and sustainable conservation.

Science shows that MPAs deliver results when they are highly or fully protected, large, well-enforced, given enough time to mature, adequately funded and equitably governed in partnership with local communities. When any of those conditions is missing, ecological benefits weaken and political support eventually does too.

Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy, a partnership between Swiss philanthropist and ocean advocate Dona Bertarelli and The Pew Charitable Trusts, has worked for more than a decade with governments and coastal communities to create large-scale MPAs, including building the financing, governance and local capacity those protections need to endure. The more than 20 MPAs that the Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy has helped establish or expand now account for roughly 90% of the ocean that is currently under full or high protection.

That partnership works in concert with others, including Blue Nature Alliance, a collaboration collectively led by Pew, Conservation International, the Global Environment Facility, the Minderoo Foundation and the Rob Walton Foundation that helps advance ocean conservation areas from designation to effective management. Since 2020, the alliance has supported the creation, expansion or improved the management of more than 160 ocean conservation areas as part of the goal of helping secure the effective conservation of 5% of the global ocean—18 million square kilometers.

For both Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy and Blue Nature Alliance, work on protected areas begins with involving the local people and communities that would be most affected by the changes. For Pew to support a conservation area, it must benefit the coastal communities that depend on the ocean and must align with their priorities.

3 ways Our Ocean Conference can succeed

Governments and others preparing for the Our Ocean Conference in Mombasa should focus on three priorities:

Financing. The largest constraint on effective ocean protection is the financial gap between what’s needed to meet conservation commitments and the money available to do so. Despite an uptick in funding in recent years, global funding levels still fall billions of dollars short of what’s needed. Some solutions to this challenge have emerged. For example, the 2023 Galápagos debt-for-nature conversion, which Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy helped develop, is forecast to generate more than $450 million for marine conservation. Likewise, arrangements known as project finance for permanence agreements, which lock in all financial, policy and community commitments simultaneously to fund and protect entire ecosystems for generations to come, are proving successful around the world. Other blended finance models also show promise to put conservation on stable, long-term footing. The ocean is a global commons and, while private philanthropy can help protect it, government funding is needed to ensure sufficient, long-term marine conservation.

Implementation capacity. A growing body of research confirms that an MPA’s success depends above all on whether it has the staffing and budget to be actively managed. This stewardship includes training managers, equipping monitoring teams and supporting Indigenous and community-led management systems. Done right, this work can make the difference between an area that’s protected in name only and one that delivers conservation and community gains.

Integration. MPAs do not exist in isolation. They sit within broader systems of fisheries management, coastal development and climate adaptation. Ultimately, the U.N. high seas treaty’s success will depend in part on how it is implemented and integrated with regional fisheries bodies, sectoral organizations and national maritime governance arrangements. Coherent ocean conservation requires that these systems work together, not in parallel.

Follow the science

Effective and lasting protections draw on the best available science and evidence, and that includes local knowledge passed down through generations in local and Indigenous communities. Pew—through our partnerships—will continue to support all aspects of this conservation in places where governments and communities have invited our support.

Delegates at the Our Ocean Conference in Mombasa have an opportunity to build on recent progress and should do so with the above-mentioned priorities in mind. By doing so, they can help move the global community closer to the 30 by 30 target and benefit coastal communities, commercial fisheries and all who depend on a healthy ocean.

Matt Rand oversees The Pew Charitable Trusts’ large-scale marine habitat conservation work.