Scaling Global MPA Capacity to Reach 30x30 and Beyond: A Systems Approach to Action

In 2022, 196 nations adopted the Kunming-Montral Global Biodiversity Framework, setting the ambitious goal to conserve 30% of Earth’s lands and waters by 2030. Reaching the 30x30 goal will require countries to accelerate their efforts to protect marine ecosystems, expanding protected area coverage through the designation of new MPAs and OECMs.

Research has shown that sufficient staffing is one of the most important factors to determining success of area-based conservation measures. As a result, successfully reaching the 30x30 goal will require a substantial increase in human, technical, and institutional capacities for marine management.

To address this need, the Blue Nature Alliance has come together with dozens of capacity development partners to launch the Scaling Global MPA Capacity to Reach 30x30 Initiative. Since inception in 2024, the initiative has brought together 70+ people from over 37 organizations, through virtual and in-person convenings.

This International Waters Experience Notes features a briefing of the initiative’s priorities and progress to date, including findings of a comprehensive systems mapping exercise to identify the most impactful leverage areas and opportunities to scale MPA effectiveness through capacity development interventions.

The Blue Nature Alliance (Alliance) GEF Project will catalyze the conservation of 1.25 billion hectares of ocean ecosystems, to safeguard biodiversity, help build resilience to climate change, promote human well-being, and enhance ecosystem connectivity and function. 

The Alliance deploys a majority of project resources through site-based engagements to support the creation, expansion, or improved management of ocean conservation areas. These engagements work with partners at all levels – from local to national leadership – to enable the creation and implementation of bold, transformative conservation plans at scale. Project resources are, further, complimented by the provision of technical expertise, access to the Alliance’s global network, and sharing of lessons learned across partnerships and project geographies.

The Alliance set an explicit target of ensuring that 50% of engagement sites from Component 2 (new protections) and 75% of the engagement sites from Component 3 (improved protections) have a credible plan in place for achieving long-term financing and management effectiveness. To achieve this, the Alliance works directly with site managers and partners to construct sustainable financing plans to help form pathways towards identifying sources of sustainable revenue and leveraging more funds toward the sites. The workshop and corresponding project experience represents an example of such work.

A lack of flexible and long-term investment in the capacity of the marine management workforce has resulted in major capacity gaps within Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), hindering the effective management of existing ocean conservation area. This gap is anticipated to continue to grow as new MPAs are designated in pursuit of global 30x30 goals (GBF Target 3).

Continued global expansion of MPAs without adequate investment in human and financial capacity is likely to lead to sub-optimal conservation outcomes (Gill et al. 2017). Research has shown that MPAs with capacity gaps are less likely to deliver intended ecological benefits than MPAs with adequate budget and staffing, often struggle to implement management plans and enforce regulations, and tend not to meet thresholds for effective management.

This gap has contributed to the presence of paper parks. Although 8.3% of the world’s ocean has been placed under some form of protection, only 2.8% of the ocean (approximately 1/3 of MPA coverage) is considered to be effectively managed.

To both address this existing gap and set countries up for success in achieving 30x30 targets, a concerted effort is required to ensure MPA capacity keeps pace with increasing protected area coverage and the growing need for effective management of existing protected areas. Activities to close this gap must include building the institutional capacity for the implementation and effective management of protected areas, reimagining governance and management systems, ensuring adequate workforce capacity to manage areas in perpetuity and ensuring funding is delivered effectively to support management effectiveness.

The Blue Nature Alliance has come together with dozens of capacity development partners to launch the ‘Scaling Global MPA Capacity to Reach 30x30 Initiative’ to advance an approach that moves beyond project-by-project capacity development activities, applying a full systems approach to identify the ‘leverage areas’ best positioned to make an outsized impact in increasing global MPA management capacity.

To date, the initiative has brought together 70+ individuals from over 37 organizations to develop a global strategic framework for marine capacity development. By expanding collaboration opportunities, the initiative seeks to:

• Co-design a global strategy to address what it would take to scale capacity development, ultimately strengthening MPA and OECM resilience and durability;
• Activate a community of practice to implement this shared strategy; and
• Inform the global agenda for effective marine management capacity building by educating and influencing donors and policy makers.

The initiative completed a rapid assessment and systems mapping exercise of the current marine management system to identify the leverage areas and opportunities with the greatest potential to scale global MPA capacity through targeted interventions, with the ultimate goal of improving MPA effectiveness through a well-resourced and organized marine management system that ensures resilient and equitable socio-cultural, economic, and ecological benefits.

Through the systems mapping exercise, the initiative identified the following leverage areas:

• Reimagining power relations and decision-making structures to have more locally-driven and long-term initiatives that equitably build MPA quality.
• Strengthening political and technical support across sectors to drive sustainable private and public commitments for durable MPAs and MPA capacity development.
• Unlocking the full power of networks to enable the experimentation and institutionalization of new practices that strengthen MPA systems.

Wide Application of the Systems Findings

Given the findings from the rapid assessment of marine management systems have been vetted across several regions, the use of these findings is globally relevant with regards to how to advance marine management. In Barcelona ahead of the United Nations Ocean Decade conference in April 2024, we brought together additional capacity global experts to build up and vet the systems map. In the Western Indian Ocean, the Western Indian Ocean Protected Area Network workshop helped inform their regional capacity development priorities. Hosted by the UN Coordinating Body of the East Asia Seas, a workshop with East Asia MPA Networks and regional partners was held in Busan Korea, ahead of Our Ocean Conference April 2025 to inform the direction of their regional collaboration to move 30 x30 forward better together. This initiative was launched at UNOC which further ground truthed the initiative’s findings which are represented in this online web app.  If you are interested in using the systems map for your own marine management efforts please reach out to contacts below.

Applying systems thinking to marine management

While we have designed a replicable facilitation strategy for applying systems thinking to regional marine management strategy and solutions-oriented exercises, we are currently working on short videos to be able to share the findings of the map more effectively including the systems map and overall project strategy. An editorial publication will follow to share the practice and learning from the group with funder and policy maker audiences.

Systems Change Design & Practice

The process by which we developed and designed the strategy and Community of Practice can be replicated with support and guidance from a systems practice expert such as Karen Grattan, Engaging Inquiry the lead of our systems thinking effort. For more information, these resources describe the process in detail:

Resources links: https://acumenacademy.org/course/systems-practice/ https://www.academyforchange.org/ Systems Practice Workbook Omidyar Group

The MPA Capacity Community of Practice launched in June 2025 at UN Ocean Conference, where nearly 200 people engaged in several sessions featuring the CoP sharing insights and inciting wide participation in the strategy design process including generating dozens of recommended actions from global partners.

Based on our marine management systems framework, the Initiative developed a global strategy to guide collective action to shift the marine management system. The CoP will work to prioritize the role of capacity development in management and the need to keep durable capacity development as the key element to achieving management effectiveness, ensuring it is a top priority for decision-makers. We will strengthen regional and national MPA Networks as the main vehicles for experimentation and institutionalization of effective capacity delivery and focus on securing additional funding for capacity development and effectively distributing limited funding. To bring marine conservation out of the margins and work across sectors, the CoP will take actions to expand collective political and technical influence. This systems approach enables the CoP to  drive aligned strategic actions at the regional, national, and site levels, making sure these are locally responsive yet globally connected.

REFERENCES

Scaling Global MPA Capacity Brief

Systems map

Fact sheet

Gill et al, 2017

Pike et al, 2024