Marine and coastal protected areas now account for 10.01% of the global ocean, according to the UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC). That single decimal point is the kind of metric ministers like: simple, legible, easy to put on a slide. The harder number, also from UNEP-WCMC, is that only 1.3% of the ocean is covered by protected areas where management effectiveness has been assessed and reported. The next phase of ocean conservation is about the gap between those two figures — and most of it sits in waters no country owns.
At the Our Ocean Conference in Mombasa, The Nature Conservancy (TNC) used the 17 June window to announce that it will support up to five high-seas marine protected area proposals by 2030 under the High Seas Treaty (BBNJ Agreement), pairing science, policy and finance to translate ratifications into actual protected polygons in areas beyond national jurisdiction.
A milestone — and its caveat
The 10.01% figure is anchored in the World Database on Protected and Conserved Areas, maintained by UNEP-WCMC with governments and partners (UNEP-WCMC). The same note carries the warning that quality lags quantity. Designation is now ahead of the old Aichi target of 10% set for 2020, but management capacity covers only a small fraction of what is being counted. For coastal communities that depend on those waters for food and income, the distinction is operational, not academic.
The gap is even larger for the high seas. International waters cover roughly 64% of the ocean surface, yet today they host only a handful of formally protected areas. The High Seas Treaty, adopted in 2023, is the legal instrument designed to close that gap by allowing the international community to designate MPAs in areas beyond national jurisdiction.
What TNC committed to
"Our Ocean Conference has always been about turning ambition into action," said Andreas Hansen, senior director for policy at TNC, in the organisation's 17 June statement. "With the High Seas Treaty, we have the policy foundation to protect biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction. The priority now is clear. Countries must continue to ratify the treaty and work together to move quickly toward implementation. High seas marine protected areas are one of the most powerful tools we have to deliver against the global target to protect 30% of the ocean by 2030."
Emily Owen, global director for ocean protection at TNC, framed why the high seas matter ecologically: "Protecting the high seas is essential to achieving global biodiversity and climate goals. These waters sustain migratory species, support ocean health and underpin livelihoods around the world. By working with partners to design and deliver the first generation of high seas MPAs, we can help secure lasting protection where it matters most."
Ademola Ajagbe, TNC's regional managing director for Africa, connected the commitment to host-country leadership: "At the Our Ocean Conference in Mombasa, one message is clear: Africa has a critical role to play in leading the global ocean agenda and accelerating progress from ambition to delivery. The high seas are our planet's largest shared biome, vital for biodiversity, climate stability, food security, livelihoods and resilient blue economies."
Why this is structurally different
High-seas MPAs are not just bigger versions of coastal MPAs. They require multilateral agreement to designate, an institutional Conference of the Parties to maintain, and — crucially — joint enforcement across navies, satellites, and port-state controls. They also need monitoring infrastructure that is closer to ocean-science backbone than to ranger patrols: vessel monitoring systems, ocean observing networks of the kind maintained by NOAA and partners, and standardised biodiversity reporting that flows back into UNEP-WCMC's World Database.
That same gap — designation versus management — is what investors should watch. Whether a particular MPA has measurable management effectiveness will determine whether it qualifies for sovereign blue bonds, biodiversity credits, or insurance-linked instruments. Without the data layer, the 10% milestone risks becoming a "paper park" target.
OceanVines lens
For OceanVines, this is where ocean education stops being a slogan and becomes an operating principle: to illuminate the inner sparks of every life we touch through our efforts in ocean conservation and education. A map-based milestone like 10% can mobilise attention, but education is what builds the local technicians, observers, fisheries officers and policy literate citizens needed for monitoring at scale.
The first generation of high-seas MPAs will be designed in conference rooms and ratified by parliaments, but they will only function if the next generation of marine practitioners can run them. None of this diminishes the 10.01% designation milestone — it clarifies it. The audit comes from the 1.3% with management effectiveness assessed, and the answer is built, ship by ship and classroom by classroom, between now and 2030.
Together, we celebrate The Greatest Good.