Assessing progress towards global marine protection targets: shortfalls in information and action

Current global marine protection targets aim to protect 10-30% of marine habitats within the next 3 to 5 years. However, these targets were adopted without prior assessment of their achievability. Moreover, our ability to monitor progress towards such targets has been constrained by a lack of robust data on marine protected areas (MPAs). Here we present the results of the first explicitly marine-focused, global assessment of MPAs in relation to three global marine protection targets. We show that approximately 2.2 million km, equivalent to 0.6% of the world’s oceans and 1.5% of the total marine area under national jurisdiction, are currently protected. Only 0.08% of the world’s oceans, and 0.2% of the total marine area under national jurisdiction is ‘notake’. The global distribution of MPAs is both uneven and unrepresentative at multiple scales, and only half of the world’s MPAs may be viewed as part of a coherent ‘network’. Over the last two decades, the spatial extent of marine area protected globally has grown at an annual growth rate of 5.2%. At this rate, even the most modest target is unlikely to be met for at least several decades, rather than within the coming decade. To some extent, these results validate concerns expressed over the relevance and utility of broad conservation targets. However, given the low level of protection