Minding the 30×30 gap

11 May 2026

Recent headlines around the world from reputable sources including UNEP-WCMC, Mongabay and others have gleefully reported that 10% of the ocean is now protected. Taken at face value, this seems like a good thing, until you realise that to reach the heady goal of “30×30” – protecting 30% of land, freshwater and seas by 2030 through equitably governed and effectively managed networks of protected areas – we need to protect an area greater than the size of the Indian Ocean over the next four years. 

But beneath this headline is a second, troubling truth. Not all marine protected areas (MPAs) are equal.  They are distinguished not only by their unique biogeographical, social and cultural circumstances, but also by their levels of protection and stages of establishment. There are therefore several stages in the journey of a marine protected area before it can become “effective”, and the critical enabling factors relating to running a group or organisation that mean conservation work can be carried out are often assumed to be in place or overlooked completely.  

The MPA Guide provides a helpful summary of both levels of protection and stages of establishment, based on international experience, to inform the expected outcomes from an MPA and support tracking of progress towards 30×30. The stages of establishment of an MPA are summarised into four sequential milestones of progress: proposed; designated, implemented and actively managed. 

 

Another way to describe this journey in the progress of a marine protected area is that MPAs are either: 

1. Developing MPAs, which have been proposed and possibly also designated, with defined boundaries and goals, but which are not yet operational; and 

1. Operational MPAs, with management plans and bodies, some of which are actively managed and which may even be effectively managed. 

Only when an MPA is actively managed, can we tell if it is effective.   

An actively managed MPA is where management activities are carried out by dedicated full or part-time staff on a regular basis within an organisation, which has a defined mission and goals and where staff time is organised to address core management tasks as well as proactively tackling management issues and pressures on the values –  e.g. priority species or habitats – for which the MPA is designated.   

 

Best practices in active MPA management include: 

• establishing co-management with local stakeholders and rights holders, recognising the value of traditional knowledge in site management and supported by ongoing outreach to build trust and partnerships with local users;
• regular MPA performance analysis, supported by ongoing ecological and socio-economic monitoring and reporting, to measure progress towards the defined MPA goals for biodiversity conservation targets and associated local outcomes, and; 
• flexible and equitable governance processes to support adaptive management in the face of uncertainty, with learning by doing informing changes that may be needed to management plans, rules, zoning systems, or MPA boundaries in order to achieve the defined goals of the MPA. 

Once we have active MPA management in place, it is possible to undertake a management effectiveness assessment. This is a structured assessment of the degree to which a given area is delivering on its stated goals and objectives, using relevant international tools based on standardised criteria. The value of this is in revealing management gaps; guiding protected area strategy and effective resource allocation and capacity development; enabling adaptive management; promoting accountability and transparency among key stakeholders including funders; and building wider support for protected area management. 

To return to recent headlines, while 10.01% of the global ocean is now officially designated within protected and conserved areas, just 1.3% of the global ocean falls within protected areas that have had management effectiveness evaluations performed. These are the fully operational MPAs that can tell us whether conservation is working for nature and people.

Our mission at the Protected Areas Foundation is to support and scale community managed protected areas in the UK, because when conservation is led by communities, it is more likely to be effective, equitable and sustained. We follow and contribute to international best practice on MPAs and we tailor recognised protected area management tools and practices to support local community efforts. Our charity target – Community 30×30 – is to enable 30 community groups to work towards effective management of at least 30 marine protected areas across England and Scotland by 2030. This supports the UK government’s contribution to the international 30by30 target to protect 30% of land and seas by 2030, by providing scalable solutions for high-quality marine protection across the UK.

Please get in touch if you would like to know more or support our work!