GNV News January 21, 2026
As of the end of 2025, there were about 16,000 marine protected areas (MPAs) worldwide, and approximately 35 million km²—equivalent to 9.6% of the global ocean area—were protected. Compared with 2024, the proportion of the ocean under protection increased by 1.2%.
In 2025, several countries and regions took steps toward marine protection. One of the major moves was the creation of the world’s largest marine protected area, announced by French Polynesia. It protects almost the entire exclusive economic zone of French Polynesia, covering as much as 4.8 million km² in total area. Of this, about 900,000 km² will be fully protected, with all fishing and mining prohibited. In roughly 180,000 km², only traditional fishing methods will be allowed. In the remaining areas, destructive activities such as mining and bottom trawling will be restricted throughout.
However, these efforts to protect the oceans are still insufficient to achieve the goal set out in the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework of 2022, which calls for conserving at least 30% of terrestrial, inland water, coastal, and marine areas. There is also concern that, even where areas are designated as MPAs, some of them receive only a level of protection under which environmentally destructive activities may still be tolerated.
Learn about marine protection efforts in Samoa in 2025 → “Samoa: First Pacific Island Nation to Enact Large-Scale Marine Protection Legislation”
Learn about the 2025 UN Ocean Conference → “UN Ocean Conference Held: Will Marine Conservation Move Forward?”
Learn more about global trends surrounding the world’s oceans → “‘Decade of Ocean Science’: Are the Media Capturing Global Developments?”
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