Marine protected area

Marine protected areas (MPA) are protected areas of seas, oceans or large lakes. MPAs restrict human activity for a conservation purpose, typically to protect natural or cultural resources.

Marine resources are protected by local, state, territorial, native, regional, or national authorities and differ substantially among nations. This variation includes different limitations on development, fishing practices, fishing seasons and catch limits, moorings and bans on removing or disrupting marine life.

In some situations (such as with the Phoenix Islands Protected Area), MPAs also provide revenue for countries, potentially equal to the income that they would have if they were to grant companies permissions to fish.

The largest marine protected areas are in the Indian and Pacific Oceans in the exclusive economic zones of certain British Overseas Territories and Territories of the United States. As of 2014, more than 6,500 MPAs encompassed 2.09% of the world's oceans. The September 2014 expansion of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument increased MPA coverage to over 2%, with 0.83% in strongly protected no-take marine reserves. In March 2015, the government of the United Kingdom announced funding for the creation of the largest contiguous marine protected reserve in the world around the Pitcairn Islands.

Protected area

Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological and/or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the enabling laws of each country or the regulations of the international organisations involved. The term "protected area" also includes Marine Protected Areas, the boundaries of which will include some area of ocean, and Transboundary Protected Areas that overlap multiple countries which remove the borders inside the area for conservation and economic purposes. There are over 161,000 protected areas in the world (as of October 2010) with more added daily, representing between 10 and 15 percent of the world's land surface area. By contrast, only 1.17% of the world's oceans is included in the world's ~6,800 Marine Protected Areas.

Protected areas are essential for biodiversity conservation, often providing habitat and protection from hunting for threatened and endangered species. Protection helps maintain ecological processes that cannot survive in most intensely managed landscapes and seascapes.