By Beth Pike | April 13, 2026
The world has designated 10% of the ocean as protected, but only 3% is effectively conserved - and that number is declining.
This week, the UN Environment Programme - World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) announced that the global target to protect 10% of the ocean by the year 2020 has finally been reached — only, six years late.
Known as Aichi Target 11, this 10% target was a key component of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 adopted by the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Building on previous strategic plans, the CBD adopted the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) in 2022, renewing the commitment to conservation with Target 3, to conserve 30% of lands, waters, and seas by 2030 (30x30) through effectively conserved and well-managed protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs).
Now that we are a third of the way to 30x30 according to official reporting, what does that mean for real protection on the water?
10% on Paper, 3% on the Water
Marine protected areas (MPAs) vary widely in their size, legal status, designation, objectives, threats, regulations, enforcement capacity, and budget - resulting in very different outcomes for biodiversity. While there is no official metric for effective conservation, The MPA Guide has been endorsed by marine conservation scientists and governments around the world as a way to evaluate and categorize MPAs based on their likelihood to deliver biodiversity benefits. The framework defines Stages of Establishment and Levels of Protection to allow us to distinguish between implemented MPAs with strong regulations and enforcement that limit harmful activities and those MPAs less likely to achieve conservation outcomes due to a lack of implementation or weak regulations
In 2024, Marine Conservation Institute and partners applied this framework to the 100 largest MPAs around the world (~90% conserved ocean area) to establish the global baseline of MPA coverage that includes a quality indicator. We found that reported protection overestimates global progress toward 30x30 and expected conservation benefits – roughly a quarter of assessed marine protected area was unimplemented, a third was incompatible with the conservation of nature, and only 2.6% of the ocean was implemented and highly or fully protected (Pike et al., 2024).
The Marine Protection Atlas (MPAtlas, mpatlas.org) houses this data and continues to grow the dataset, serving as the official repository for MPA Guide assessments and the go-to place for global 30x30 transparency and accountability. As of March 2026, the MPAtlas reports 3.3% of the ocean is effectively protected – a figure that still differs dramatically from the 10.01% coverage reported in the UNEP-WCMC World Database of Conserved and Protected Areas’ (WDCPA). While the protected area reported by governments to the WDCPA continues to grow, effective implementation on the water and strong regulations that confer substantial protection continue to lag far behind.
The Advent of OECMs
It is important to note that a small proportion (0.22%) of the WDCPA’s reported 10.01% figure is made up of OECMs.
The CBD defines OECMs as a geographically defined area other than a Protected Area, which is governed and managed in ways that achieve positive and sustained long-term outcomes for the in situ conservation of biodiversity, with associated ecosystem functions and services and, where applicable, cultural, spiritual, socioeconomic, and other locally relevant values. Identification and reporting of OECMs has been slow as countries begin to determine what classifies as an OECM. An early analysis of terrestrial OECMs revealed no difference in conservation outcomes between OECMs and non-OECM areas (McDonald et al. 2019), and a recent study demonstrated that the vast majority of reported OECMs do not have any reported evidence that supports their credibility as effective marine conservation areas (Cook et al. 2025). To address this challenge, The Marine OECM Guide, a sister publication to The MPA Guide, is currently in review and expected to illuminate the biodiversity outcomes of OECMs in the near future.
One Step Forward, Two Steps Back
While 10% marks an important milestone on paper, we still have a long way to go to achieve a meaningful 30x30. Now over halfway through the decade, we now have less than 4 years to secure the remaining 26.7%. At the same time, we are seeing how politics catalyze the progress — or pullback — of marine conservation measures now more than ever. In Chile, the recent regime change meant that the 337,000 km2 of expanded protected area enacted by the former Boric administration was instantly reversed by the new Kast administration. In the U.S., the Trump administration has issued a series of Executive Orders reversing crucial protections in U.S. Marine National Monuments, totalling over 3 million km2 of the world’s fully and highly protected area – roughly the size of India. Should these protections be reversed, the global coverage of effectively conserved marine areas would drop to as little as 2.6%, while the ‘protected only on paper’ number continues to climb.
These incidents highlight not only the importance of effectiveness metrics in conservation reporting, but also the fact that the upward trend in conservation coverage cannot be assumed. This is not the time for a victory lap. The truth is, we are a long way from securing permanent, meaningful protection for 30% of the ocean, and getting there will require concerted international, national, and local efforts.
However, there are beacons of hope in the communities and organizations that are working tirelessly on the ground to create effective, lasting protections in their waters. For example, in the past year, Portugal and Chile implemented substantial highly and fully protected areas in their EEZs, and Marine Conservation Institute is excited to soon be announcing this year’s group of MPAs that meet science-based standards for outstanding conservation effectiveness at the 2026 Blue Park Awards.
Moreover, the international agreement to conserve biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction, otherwise known as the BBNJ Agreement or High Seas Treaty, entered into force in January, becoming international law. This agreement has opened a new pathway to achieving 30x30 through the establishment of MPAs beyond national jurisdiction.
Looking ahead to 2030, the extent to which these tools deliver meaningful biodiversity and climate benefits will depend on whether our targets are underpinned by effective, durable protection—rather than nominal designations that risk becoming little more than bluewashing.
Citations
Cook, C. N., Lemieux, C. J., Grantham, H. S., et al. (2025). What will count? Evidence for the global recognition of other effective area-based conservation measures. Conservation Letters, 18(5), e13150. https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.13150.
McDonald, R. I., et al. (2019). Conservation outcomes of protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures. Biological Conservation, 240, 108275. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2019.108275.
Pike, E. P., et al. (2024). Ocean protection quality is lagging behind quantity: Assessing the effectiveness of marine protected areas. Conservation Letters, 17(3), e13068. https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.13068.