Search

The ocean contains unique biodiversity, provides valuable food resources and is a major sink for anthropogenic carbon. Marine protected areas (MPAs) are an effective tool for restoring ocean biodiversity and ecosystem services1,2, but at present only 2.7% of the ocean is highly protected3. This low level of ocean protection is due largely to conflicts with fisheries and other extractive uses. To address this issue, here we developed a conservation planning framework to prioritize highly protected MPAs in places that would result in multiple benefits today and in the future. We find that a substantial increase in ocean protection could have triple benefits, by protecting biodiversity, boosting the yield of fisheries and securing marine carbon stocks that are at risk from human activities. Our results show that most coastal nations contain priority areas that can contribute substantially to achieving these three objectives of biodiversity protection, food provision and carbon storage. A globally coordinated effort could be nearly twice as efficient as uncoordinated, national-level conservation planning. Our flexible prioritization framework could help to inform both national marine spatial plans4 and global targets for marine conservation, food security and climate action. Using a globally coordinated strategic conservation framework to plan an increase in ocean protection through marine protected areas can yield benefits for biodiversity, food provisioning and carbon storage.

Only 2.1% of the ocean is in actively managed marine protected areas (MPAs). Achieving the United Nations' target of 10% of the ocean protected by 2020 will require an aggressively implemented mix of large MPAs in remote areas, and small MPAs in inhabited coastal areas. Replication of small no-take MPAs (marine reserves) in coastal areas at the global scale is more likely to occur if reserves are designed as investment opportunities – ‘fish banks’ that produce new profits based on ecosystem services such as tourism and fish production. Here a pro forma business plan for a marine reserve using private investment and local management is presented. Total annual profit before the reserve was €254,000 (from fishing only); in year 8 after creation of the reserve, profit (fishing+tourism) was €3.3 million. Given the right conditions, the net present value of the reserve can be between 4 and 12 times greater than the no-reserve counterfactual. In our model, (1) the tourism sector covers the costs of creation and operation of the reserve as an investment in a profitable business; and (2) fishers become shareholders and receive income from tourist access fees; their profits increase as soon as one year after the creation of the reserve. A series of financing mechanisms to create and manage fish banks is also proposed. If designed properly, fish banks can help restore marine biodiversity and ecosystem services, and can create jobs, help fishers, and bring in significantly greater economic profits than the absence of protection.

In this Article, the affiliation of author Cristina Garilao was incorrectly given as ‘Evolutionary Biology and Ecology Laboratory, Albert Ludwigs University, Freiburg, Germany.’ (affiliation 8). It should be ‘GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Kiel, Germany’ (affiliation 18). The original Article has been corrected online.