At the U.N. Ocean Conference in France, French Polynesia announced the creation of the world’s largest Marine Protected Area (MPA), covering its entire exclusive economic zone (EEZ)—nearly 5 million km². This move bans extractive practices such as deep-sea mining and bottom-trawling. Of this, 1.1 million km² is designated as highly or fully protected (class 1 and 2), permitting only traditional fishing, ecotourism, and scientific research. An additional 500,000 km² will be added to this zone by World Ocean Day 2026.
President Moetai Brotherson emphasized the region’s longstanding traditional stewardship and the need to align with International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) standards, which call for defined conservation goals and implementation capacity. French Polynesia’s previous 2018 classification of its EEZ as a Managed Marine Area laid the groundwork for this step.
IUCN Director General Grethel Aguilar praised the initiative as a model for global marine conservation. Despite this milestone, achieving the global target of protecting 30% of the oceans by 2030 remains a challenge—requiring 85 new MPAs daily. Currently, only 8.3% of the ocean is protected.
Samoa also pledged to protect 30% of its waters. Brotherson stressed the outsized oceanic responsibility of small island nations, which manage 7% of ocean surface but hold just 0.1% of global GDP. He called for international support to ensure enforcement of protective measures.
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https://time.com/7292420/french-polynesia-announces-new-marine-protected-area
