Percent Marine Protected Area on Shelf by Marine Ecoregion (2014)

Percent of marine ecoregion area formally protected from the WDPA 2014.  These data were overlain on the map of marine ecoregions (shelf areas only) to derive total area coverage statistics. It is not currently possible to assess the effectiveness of MPAs at a global scale, so the map shows an optimistic assessment of area protected. Looking beyond shelf areas, Spalding et al. (2008) point out that only 1.91 percent of waters within exclusive economic zone areas, and 0.717 percent of the entire world ocean surface lie within protected areas. Data sources for Spalding et al. (2008) included the following: UN Environment Programme (UNEP)/International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). 2008. Protected areas extracted from the 2008 World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA). The WDPA is a joint product of UNEP and the IUCN, prepared by UNEP-WCMC and the IUCN WCPA working with Governments, the Secretariats of MEAs, and collaborating NGOs. For further information, contact protectedareas@unep-wcmc.org or go to www.WDPA.org; Wood, L. J., L. Fish, J. Laughren, and D. Pauly. 2008. Assessing progress towards global marine protection targets: Shortfalls in information and action. Oryx 42: 340–351. These data were derived by The Nature Conservancy, and were displayed in a map published in The Atlas of Global Conservation (Hoekstra et al., University of California Press, 2010). More information at http://nature.org/atlas. Data derived from: Spalding, M., L. Fish, and L. Wood. 2008. Towards representative protection of the world’s coasts and oceans: Progress, gaps and opportunities. Conservation Letters 1, no. 5: 217–226