How French Polynesia Protected 4.8 Million km² of Ocean: The World’s Largest MPA

0:00 French Polynesia has created the world's largest marine protected area, spanning nearly its entire exclusive economic zone, it's EZ at about 4.8 million kilometers square. The announcement happened at the United Nations Ocean Conference that I was at in France. I didn't actually see the announcement, but it was the big talk of the town and it marks a major leap in marine conservation efforts. We're going to talk about why that does it on this episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. Let's start the show. Hey everybody, welcome back to another exciting episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. I'm your host, Andrew Lewin. This is the podcast where you find out what's happening with the ocean, how you can speak up for the ocean, what you can do to live for a better ocean by taking action.

0:42 On today's episode, we're going to be talking about the world's largest marine protected area. That's French Polynesia. They protected 4.8 million square kilometers and it's huge. And we're going to talk about why this happening and the significance of it and what's actually in the details of the NPA because a lot of times we talk about marine protected areas and PAs and as a lot of times they end up being paper parks. They're just for show and they don't really protect much or they get protected for a little bit and then they get rescinded. Some of it gets rescinded to opening up the fishing or there are some marine protected areas like in the UK that allow bottom trawling, which isn't helping the recovery of fishery species. So there's a lot to talk about here. We're going to get into it, but before we do, I just wanted to let you know, have you ever felt like you want to connect to ocean conservation a little bit more?

1:24 Listening to this podcast sometimes helps, but sometimes you feel like you want to do more. I want you to think about joining our community at the undertow. And the reason why is because this is a community that supports wave makers, individuals and people who are supporting a mission, who are leading a mission to protect the ocean. We're going to be talking about the ocean. We're going to be meeting at least once a month to be able to talk just as a community to talk about ocean conservation practices and ocean conservation general and how we can guide you to become a better ocean steward, even if you live in the middle of a landmass like I do here in Ontario. So there's a lot of things that you can do in this community. So join it, go to speakupforblue.com forward slash join the undertow that speakupforblue.com forward slash join the undertow.

2:08 We're going to be starting this community and kicking it off very soon. So just sign up now and you'll get access to the community very soon. All right. Let's get back into this great news of this marine protected area in the French Polynesian islands. So like I mentioned, total area 4.8 million kilometers, roughly 18 times the size of Great Britain. It's also fully protected. 1.086 million square kilometers is fully protected. And it's the twice the size of mainland France, 900,000 square kilometers of no take zones, 220 square kilometers near the society islands and 680,000 square kilometers near the Gambier islands, artisanal fishing zones, 186,000 kilometers squared.

2:49 So that means for traditional line fishing and small scale spear fishing. So for artisanal fishers only that's available to them and then broader protections. The rest essentially has limits of extractive activities like deep sea mining and bottom trawling. So there are just different management zones within this larger marine protected area, which is wonderful. So by World Oceans Day in 2026, there's going to be an additional 500,000 square kilometers that will be designated as a highly protected zone. And then this graduate rollout just shows that commitment to ramping up protection over time. So this is how it works. Really, when you start putting together a marine protected area and you do it properly like this one seems to have been done, you include people right from the beginning.

3:35 So you include the people whose the water is important, the coastline is important to them from a cultural perspective, plus from a fishing perspective, from a community perspective. You also include like government entities, you include conservation organizations, you include scientists and other experts and traditional experts as well as part of that culture. And you all talk together right from the beginning and it may not be a smooth sailing kind of process. There's going to be conflict, there's going to be arguments, there's going to be times where you may not agree and people are going to have to compromise. Each side of every little thing of every ocean user is going to have to compromise. But when you do it properly and you set aside enough zones for everybody and you are able to make sure that this marine protector is going to do its job.

4:21 It's not just going to be the world's largest marine protected area, but it's going to be the world's largest functional and successful marine protected area. That's what you shoot for. And to me, right off of this article that I saw in manga Bay news, this looks like this marine protected area is starting off right with the promise of an additional 500,000 square kilometer protection designated as highly protected in 2026, only a year later. There's a lot to go into this, but this is really great. The president, Motaya, I think I'm pronouncing it properly, Motay, maybe. Brotherson emphasized ancestral stewardship and alignment with IUCN standards. So they're following all the protocols. So Aguilar, IUCN DG praise it as globally significant spotlighting how small island nations can lead in sustainability.

5:11 And then conservation NGOs, including IUCN and the Pew charitable trust applaud the move. So Scott support from cultural significance and communities. It's got the praise of IUCN. It's got the praise of major organizations that help people in these communities be able to get the information, the resources that they need to do this type of work. And that's a Pew charitable trust as well as other like conservation international and so forth. There's a lot of other organizations that get involved. So now why is it matter to have this marine particularly? Why is it so important? So there's a biodiversity boost right after this. So you're protecting critical habitats so that sharks, whales, sea turtles, and some of the healthiest coral reefs recorded have protections, protections from extractive processes.

5:53 Now, this doesn't protect these coral reefs or other habitats from climate change, but it does protect any kind of other human disturbance that's around. Now there's a cultural and livelihood significance of the ocean sustains Polynesian communities, both economically and spiritually. So the fact that importance went into the planning and went into the results of this protected area is huge. And then global leadership. This sets a bold example that only 8.3% of global oceans are currently protected fall short of the 30 by 30 targets. So there's a percent by 30 by 2030, but this helps bring it up to I believe it was almost 10%. So it helps just in this one marine protected area, but it's not just a marine protected area to say we have the largest marine protected area.

6:36 It's a marine protected has zones, the specific zones to meet all the criteria that I mentioned earlier, the cultural aspect, the science aspect, the environmental aspect, right? And protecting it from future threats such as deep sea mining is really important here. So additional measures, so strengthening fisheries management with public input, just as I mentioned before, banning deep sea mining and fish aggregating devices will help and allow these populations to recover within this marine protected area and then spill over outside the boundaries to allow better fisheries in the future and more sustainable fisheries in the future. So obviously emphasizing community involvement and traditional ecological knowledge is really important in these processes. And that's what these did seeking international cooperation funding from like the Pew charitable trust and the IUCN having legal protections require enforcement support.

7:26 So this really helped in that. And then looking at it comparatively to the Phoenix Islands protected area in Kiribati, which only covers approximately 408,000 square kilometers, we're looking at an order of magnitude more and other MPA examples such as the Ross Sea, Papahana, Mokuakea, Coral Sea, none of which match the Antarctic Arctic scales, but these things are huge. This is the largest marine protected area to help out with those percentages. It stands out as the largest default and in its exclusive economic zone and it's EEZ. So that's a huge thing for French Polynesia. It's leading the battle and making sure that we protect the 30% by 2030. So essentially, on presses in scale and ambition, marking a new standard for marine protected area, including everybody in the area showing that you can have inclusive processes with a huge marine protected area, which really helps and almost its entire exclusive economic zone.

8:21 It's a balanced approach conservation zones having sustainable traditional fishing allowing to happen and future planning for more protections, which will be great and it demonstrates an effective use of ancestral knowledge, strong governance and compelling model for other nations. This is huge. And the challenge now lies in the implementation, the enforcement and the global support. I think they'll get the global support. I'm not sure if it'll be financial. Hopefully it will be on an ongoing basis. There are different ways to fund these types of management practices in the future. I know the island of Newey that I had on a couple of years ago, actually working with Conservation International and the Blue Nature Alliance, they were able to almost like not auction off the property, but they were able to support like a square kilometer of marine protected area for the next 20 years.

9:04 I think if you paid a certain fee, I think it was like $240 US or $240 Canadian. I can't remember. But then you got to say, hey, you know what? I'm actually supporting this little piece of area for the next 20 years so that they can implement and enforce these management practices. And so it really helped by it with that global support, which I thought was great. So I think this is really important. Just imagine protecting nearly 5 million square kilometers of oceans properly. It's not considered a paper park or it probably won't be considered a paper park. I hope it's not. So I think this is really great. There's a lot of work that needs to be done in creating more marine protected areas, whether they be large, whether they be small, whether they be a network of marine protected areas. There's a lot more that we have to do. We still have 20 more percent to reach the 30 by 30. And of course, we need to think beyond that. We need to think about near shore conservation. We need to think about offshore conservation.

9:54 We need to think a lot more and making sure that the marine protect areas that we do have are not just paper parks that get implemented with better management practices. So there's always work to be done. Make sure you follow this podcast wherever you listen to your podcast, whether it's beyond YouTube, Apple podcast, Spotify, whether it's been anywhere. Make sure you tune in to hear more about ocean use like this. And if you want to join the undertow, please do so go to speak up for blue.com forward slash join the undertow. Be part of our community. Be part of the ocean community and help guide you to being a better ocean steward because we just provide you with information and the facts of what you need to do. So it's always great. Always fun. We're going to have a great fun in there. Speak up for blue.com forward slash join the undertow.

10:34 That's it for me today. I want to thank you so much for joining me on this episode of the how to protect the ocean podcast. I'm your host, Andrew Lewin from the true north strong and free. Have a great day. We'll talk to you next time and happy.