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This chapter introduces the norm of large marine protected areas (MPAs). It defines the norm and poses the two questions that this book seeks to answer: (1) Why have large MPAs emerged as the solution of choice for governments. (2) What explains differences in how governments manage their large MPAs? It positions these questions within the norm diffusion literature in international relations and offers an alternative analytical approach to norm localization in international relations that foregrounds domestic political economies. The chapter then introduces the book’s process tracing methodology and details case selection and data collection.

This chapter examines the fraught efforts of subsequent Australian governments to protect the Australian Coral Sea over a 10-year period. The political economy of the Australian Coral Sea made efforts to protect it a contested stakeholder battle between the government, environmental groups, the ecotourism sector, and the commercial and recreational fishing sectors. Moderate levels of commercial activity in the area forced the government to repeatedly water down regulations over its decade-long consultation process. The end result, this chapter argues, was a “paper park” that does little to protect ocean ecosystems. The Coral Sea process demonstrates the outsized influence that even relatively minor extractive industry interests can often have over conservation policy.