Photo credit: Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi

Insights on MPA progress, regional conservation frameworks, and complementary tools for the decade ahead

MENA Oceans Initiative, 8 June 2026, World Ocean Day l 2026 Theme: Strong MPAs for Our Blue Planet

For the first time in history, more than 10% of the world’s ocean sits within a formally designated marine protected area. Reached in early 2026, this milestone reflects over a decade of sustained political commitment, scientific advocacy, and multilateral cooperation. 

The World Ocean Day 2026 theme “Strong Marine Protected Areas for Our Blue Planet” builds on this foundation and speaks directly to the action required to make this possibility a success regionally. “Strong” refers to the full enabling environment that an MPA requires: science-grounded design, active and resourced management, meaningful regulatory protection, and the genuine involvement of coastal communities as partners in stewardship. These are the characteristics that distinguish MPAs delivering ecological recovery from those still building toward it.

The Global Picture: A decade of momentum and the road to 30×30

As recently as January 2025, ocean protection coverage stood at 8.2%. By December 2025 it had climbed to 9.9%, the largest single-year increase in nearly a decade; driven by major designations across the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans. The entry into force of the BBNJ Agreement (the High Seas Treaty) at the UN General Assembly in September 2025 represents the most significant structural advance: for the first time, international law provides a mechanism to establish MPAs in waters beyond national jurisdiction, which cover 61% of the global ocean.

The challenge now is to close the remaining 20 percentage points before 2030, as mandated by Target 3 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework – the 30×30 commitment to which 196 nations are party. Science published in npj Ocean Sustainability in late 2025 is clear that conservation success is determined not by the area enclosed but by the quality of the protection within it. The Marine Protection Atlas, applying the peer-reviewed MPA Guide framework, reports that as of March 2026 approximately 3.3% of the global ocean is fully or highly protected in practice — reflecting the time, resources, and institutional capacity required to move a protected area from political commitment to active management on the water.

MENA’s marine conservation landscape: shared momentum on distinct seascapes

The MENA region spans three ecologically distinct marine environments, the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, and the Arabian Gulf, each with its own conservation landscape, governance frameworks, and trajectory of progress.

Across North Africa, a growing number of countries are establishing and strengthening marine conservation frameworks with sustained regional and international support. Morocco has emerged as one of the more active Southern Mediterranean countries, with established MPAs including Jbel Moussa, a national Blue Economy Strategy that embeds marine protection within broader development priorities, and formal reporting of Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Measures – making it part of a small number of countries globally to do so. The EU-funded IMAP-MPA programme has supported Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, and Libya with direct technical capacity on MPA monitoring, management planning, and stakeholder governance. Tunisia’s Kerkennah Islands MPA in the Gulf of Gabes – a focal site for community co-governance; and Algeria’s Rachgoun Island MPA, designated in 2023, represent meaningful recent additions to the regional estate. Egypt’s marine environment, encompassing the globally significant coral reefs of the Red Sea’s Sinai Peninsula and Ras Mohammed National Park alongside its Mediterranean coast, participates in both the Barcelona Convention and PERSGA governance frameworks.

In the Gulf and Red Sea, the PERSGA network, coordinating 12 MPAs across seven member states including Ras Mohammed in Egypt, Aqaba Marine Park in Jordan, the Farasan Islands in Saudi Arabia, and Socotra Islands in Yemen, represents a well developed transboundary marine governance framework in the sub-region. Saudi Arabia’s National Center for Wildlife coordinates systematic conservation surveys across both its Red Sea and Arabian Gulf coasts, encompassing coral reef systems that are among the world’s most studied for their climate resilience. 

In the Arabian Gulf, the UAE’s Marawah Marine Biosphere Reserve at 4,255 km² – the largest in the region, supporting globally significant dugong populations, three seagrass species, and more than 18 coral species; anchors a national MPA network aligned with UAE Net Zero 2050 commitments. Bahrain’s Hawar Islands, a Ramsar-designated wetland of international importance, Kuwait’s Kubbar Island reef systems, and Oman’s turtle nesting coastlines each represent significant ecological assets under active national stewardship. Research from KAUST mapping seagrass blue carbon resources in the Red Sea through green turtle tracking illustrates how regional science is continuously expanding the evidence base for marine conservation in MENA’s waters.

Provisional data from MedPAN and SPA/RAC indicates that less than 9% of the Mediterranean Sea is currently designated as MPAs, with the large majority in EU waters; reflecting the earlier stage of MPA development in Southern Mediterranean countries and the resource and institutional constraints that regional partners are actively working to address. The MedFund, supported by the Global Environment Facility, provides direct sustainable financing to MPA management structures in Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco – a recognition that long-term conservation effectiveness requires long-term financial commitment alongside designation.

Enabling Conditions & Complementary Tools: What a comprehensive toolkit for ocean stewardship would encompass

The MPA Guide published in Science in 202 identifies four enabling conditions that together predict positive conservation outcomes: science-based design; active, adequately resourced management; meaningful levels of protection from extractive and damaging activities; and community and rights-holder engagement as partners in governance. These conditions are interdependent rather than sequential; and the IMAP-MPA programme’s experience building participatory governance frameworks at sites like Jbel Moussa and Kerkennah offers the MENA region a directly applicable model.

Achieving 30×30 and sustaining healthy marine ecosystems over the long term will also require a broader portfolio of tools working alongside MPAs. Research published in npj Ocean Sustainability in 2025 is explicit: the GBF’s goals require a portfolio of actions beyond area-based conservation alone, tailored to national circumstances and ecological priorities.

A forward looking agenda for the MENA Oceans Initiative

Across the MENA region, the direction of progress is encouraging. North African countries are expanding their MPA frameworks with sustained global support. Gulf states are investing in national conservation programmes, blue carbon restoration, and marine monitoring capacity. The PERSGA network provides a model for the transboundary coordination that shared seas require. And the MENA Ocean Action Agenda, developed through two years of cross-sectoral engagement across the region, provides the structural guidance for aligning these efforts toward a coherent regional vision.

The MENA Oceans Initiative by Goumbook advocates three interconnected priorities for the region in the years ahead, strengthening the enabling environment for MPA effectiveness – moving protected areas from designation to active, measurable conservation; unlocking the potential of complementary tools, particularly OECMs, blue carbon conservation, and ecosystem-based fisheries management; and deepening regional cooperation on shared seas, transboundary ecosystems, and the governance of international waters. 

The MENA Oceans Summit 2026, being held in the UAE, from 16-18 September, will advance dialogues from the MPA deepdive it convened during the IUCN World Conservation Congress 2025 in Abu Dhabi – and advance each of these priorities through cross-sectorial collaborations bringing together ministers, scientists, communities, and investors around the shared goal of a healthier, better-governed regional ocean. 

For more information on MENA Oceans, visit: www.meanoceans.com