Achievement reflects huge effort at national level to designate vast areas of ocean, but is an urgent reminder that protected and conserved areas at sea need to triple by 2030 The international community has reached an important global milestone, with 10.01 per cent of the ocean now officially designated within protected and conserved areas.
Whilst this represents considerable progress, an area approximately the size of the Indian Ocean still needs to be designated by 2030 if international ambitions for ocean protection are to be achieved. In 2024, current records show that 8.6 per cent of ocean and coastal areas globally were within documented protected and conserved areas. Over the past two years the world has protected about 5 million square kilometres of ocean, an area bigger than the European Union.
