ORCID
- Fabio Favoretto: 0000-0002-6493-4254
Abstract
Summary.Highly and fully protected marine protected areas (HF-MPAs) deliver the strongest ecological outcomes, yet they cover just 3.8% of the ocean, and annual gains have stalled. We combine ProtectedSeas regulatory classifications with coastal habitat maps for corals, mangroves, seagrasses, and saltmarshes to track HF-MPAs and minimally/lightly protected MPAs (ML-MPAs) from 2000 to 2025 and overlay results with governance-based enabling conditions. HF-MPAs remain rare even in high-capacity countries that host most mapped coastal habitats and 39% of the global upgrade gap. Upgrading ML-MPAs in this small cohort—especially in overseas territories—offers immediate habitat protection gains and a visible pathway toward 30 × 30, while parallel efforts expand high-quality protection in open-ocean and deep-sea ecosystems and build enabling conditions elsewhere.
DOI Link
Publication Date
2026-02-17
Publication Title
iScience
Volume
29
Issue
3
Acceptance Date
2026-02-12
Deposit Date
2026-03-09
Additional Links
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Favoretto, F., Kumagai, J., López-Sagástegui, C., Brannigan, D., Driedger, A., Sletten, J., Colegrove, C., Vincent, T., Zetterlind, V., Guidetti, P., & Aburto-Oropeza, O. (2026) 'High-capacity nations can unlock momentum for quality marine protection', iScience, 29(3). Available at: 10.1016/j.isci.2026.115043
