The last decade has raised the visibility of the current state of our seas in the public eye, including the Promise of Sydney, which calls for global no-take reserve coverage of 30%. Today, only 5.3% of the world’s oceans are protected in marine protected areas, and globally only 2.5% are protected strongly in no-take marine reserves.
With the designation and implementation of these currently proposed MPAs or MPA networks, the global percentage of marine protected areas would rise from its current 5.3% to approximately 7%. Many of these expansions are expected to include no-take zones; however, we generally don't assign proposed MPAs a strong protection level until boundaries and zones are officially put forth.
It is important to note that some of these expansion numbers can only be derived from official proclamations, statements, and expressed plans, rather than on exact proposed boundaries. When necessary, approximations are based on the best-available information. Individual site estimations should not change the overall projected increase by a significant margin, but several of these approximations taken together could alter the final outcome.
The spreadsheet below is a "behind the scenes" look at a previous version of our unoffical spreadsheet for tracking promised, proposed and unimplemented marine protection. Most of this data comes from a rigorous effort to track announcements, news, and other information regarding the creation and expansion of MPAs. Current information can be found on our Campaign Tracker. We welcome updates and additions so please contact us if you have information to update our numbers.
