Protected Area targets have been set globally, regionally, and sometimes at a country level. During the last decade, the global protected area targets that all country signatories to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) committed to were the CBD's Aichi Biodiversity Targets.  Specifically, Aichi Target 11 which stated that:

at least 17 per cent of terrestrial and inland water, and 10 per cent of coastal and marine areas, especially areas of particular importance for biodiversity and ecosystem services, are conserved through effectively and equitably managed, ecologically representative and well connected systems of protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures, and integrated into the wider landscapes and seascapes by 2020.

The new Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) was adopted in December 2022 at the 15th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP15). CBD country signatories have committed to implementing the protected area target (Target 3) of the new GBF by the year 2030. The text of Target 3 is below:

Ensure and enable that by 2030 at least 30 per cent of terrestrial, inland water, and of coastal and marine areas, especially areas of particular importance for biodiversity and ecosystem functions and services, are effectively conserved and managed through ecologically representative, well-connected and equitably governed systems of protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures, recognizing indigenous and traditional territories, where applicable, and integrated into wider landscapes, seascapes and the ocean, while ensuring that any sustainable use, where appropriate in such areas, is fully consistent with conservation outcomes, recognizing and respecting the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities including over their traditional territories.

Regionally, the Micronesia Challenge aims to effectively conserve at least 30% of near-shore marine resources and 20% of terrestrial resources across Micronesia by 2020. An example of a country-based target is Fiji that aims to have 30% of reefs protected by 2015 and 30% of waters managed as a marine protected area network by 2020. During the 24th Micronesia Island Forum in 2019, the Leaders recognized the success in the first 15 years of the Micronesia Challenge and endorsed the new Micronesia Challenge 2030 goals to effectively manage 50% of marine resources, including the exclusive economic zone (EEZ), and 30% of terrestrial resources by 2030. 

Below are various efforts that have been carried out to assess global and regional progress towards the Aichi protected area targets. The paper by Govan (2009) is the most comprehensive assessment of marine protected areas (MPAs), including all LMMAs in the Pacific Islands. Govan’s data has now been incorporated into the World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA).  Several of the papers below attempt to assess progress towards targets which relate to factors such as management effectiveness, biodiversity coverage, governance and finance etc. 

As we move closer to 2030, further technical guidance on implementing the new GBF Target 3 that becomes available will be added to the resources section below. Furthermore,  the resources section will be updated as needed to include any new papers or guidance related to taking stock of national, regional and global progress in implementing the GBF Target 3. 

 

National and Regional Networks of Marine Protected Areas: A Review of Progress

United National Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre. 2008. National and Regional Networks of Marine Protected Areas: A Review of Progress. Cambridge, U.K.

National Marine Conservation Assessment for Papua New Guinea (Draft)

Papua New Guinea is committed to the establishment of a network of marine protected areas to fulfill national and international commitments.

National Policy Framework Assessment for Nature-based Solutions: Coastal Resilience and Forestry Sectors, Fiji.

This report examines the extent to which Nature-based Solutions (NbS) are currently reflected, enabled, and operationalised within Fiji’s policy, legal, and institutional frameworks governing the forestry and coastal protection and restoration sectors.

National Policy Framework Assessment for Nature-based Solutions: Coastal Resilience and Forestry Sectors, Tonga

This report provides a consolidated assessment of Tonga’s national policies, plans, and legislation through a Nature-based Solutions (NbS) lens.

National policy framework assessment on nature-based solutions for coastal resilience and forestry sectors, Vanuatu.

This project report is a review of Vanuatu Forestry and Coastal Protection Policy Framework.

National Protected Area Partnerships

Country-based and locally-based protected area partnerships are gradually becoming more wide-spread throughout the Pacific Islands.

National-level evaluation of a community-based marine management initiative

Community-based approaches to conservation and natural resource management are considered essential to meeting global conservation targets.

Natural World Heritage in Oceania

Natural and mixed World Heritage (WH) has generally not been a success in the Oceania region, due to limited support at all levels, unrealistic expectations about what WH can and cannot deliver, and a lack of resources to support all aspects of the WH process, particularly WH site management.

Nature-Related Finance and Indigenous Peoples

This briefing provides an overview of the interlinkages between the financial sector, nature and Indigenous Peoples.

Nauru Biological Rapid Assessment (BIORAP)

The findings of this BIORAP survey have identified or re-confirmed the critical importance of the biodiversity and ecosystems of Nauru's terrestrial and marine environments and the urgent need for follow-up activities to manage and mitigate threats for their conservation.

Navigator - a global database of verified marine protected and managed area regulations and boundaries

Comprehensive, global, and standardized data on ocean regulations are essential to assess protection levels. They are also key to successfully measuring progress towards 30 × 30 goals.

NBSAP Workshop Reports 2024 - 2025

This dataset contains reports from several workshops held in the Cook Islands as part of the National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAP) process.

New IUCN report identifies challenges and opportunities for Natural World Heritage in Oceania ahead of UNOC3

The Pacific region has witnessed some of humanity's greatest achievements. It is a vibrant tapestry of diverse cultures and languages and holds immense global significance for its biodiversity and geodiversity. Despite this, it remains very poorly represented on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Novel Strategies for Coral Restoration

An interdisciplinary team at the University of Miami discovered a new way to help lab-grown baby corals survive through the often-difficult early life stage.

O Le Pupu Pu'e National Park (Ramsar Site) Management Plan 2020-2030

O Le Pupu-Pu'e National Park was the first Park established in Samoa at a time when the environment movement and concerns for our unique biodiversity and natural features was still only a passing thought.

Ocean Governance and Marine Conservation: Institutional Work as a Lever for Ocean Sustainability

Ocean governance presents one of the most complex environmental policy challenges of our time, requiring coordinated action across multiple scales, sectors and stakeholder groups.

Ocean justice? Marine genetic resources and monetary benefit-sharing under the BBNJ Agreement

he adoption of the BBNJ Agreement concluded a decades-long dispute over how MGRs of ABNJ should be legally classified and how benefits, particularly monetary benefits, derived from the utilisation and commercialisation of these MGRs, should be shared.

Ocean philanthropy: small sums for a vast domain

For a realm that covers most of the planet, the ocean attracts a modest share of charitable attention. In philanthropic terms, it remains a niche cause: widely discussed, but thinly financed. That gap has narrowed in recent years, though only slightly and from a low base.

Ocean Protection: Present Status and Future Possibilities

Toropova, C., Meliane, I., Laffoley, D., Matthews, E. and Spalding, M.

Ocean Travellers: Safeguarding Critical Habitats For Migratory Sharks And Rays

This report presents the first global overview of Important Shark and Ray Areas (ISRAs) for species listed under the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) and its daughter agreement, the Memorandum of Understanding for the Conservation of Migratory Sharks (Shar

Ocean travellers: Safeguarding Critical Habitats for Migratory Sharks and Rays

Sharks and rays are among the most threatened vertebrates on the planet, facing intense pressure from overfishing, habitat loss and degradation and inadequate protection across critical sites for life-history processes and their migratory ranges.

Oceanian Sovereignty: rethinking conservation in a sea of islands

In an age of dramatic environmental and ecological challenges, the dynamics of sovereignty associated with the conservation of natural resources in Oceania are in flux.

OECMs in Wetlands: Linkages with the Ramsar Convention

Drawing on the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework's Target 3 and the Ramsar Convention, this briefing note examines the synergies between Ramsar Site designations and OECM recognition, and what these mean for freshwater and coastal ecosystems.

Operationalizing nature recovery to market outcomes

A prosperous blue economy in coastal areas requires operational models that clearly link ecological outcomes to economic returns. These models can support investment, planning, and the growth of non-extractive economies that benefit both coastal communities and the environment.

OTHER EFFECTIVE AREA-BASED CONSERVATION MEASURES

Area-based conservation has long been a cornerstone of efforts to conserve species and habitats, safeguard and enhance nature’s contributions to people, 1and improve the resilience of land and seascapes to climate change (Zeng et al. 2022; Brodie et al. 2023; Duncanson et al.

Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Measures: A Path Towards Equitable Biodiversity Conservation

Many people are familiar with the idea of a protected area—land or water areas set aside and kept as natural as possible, such as national parks and nature reserves. Protected areas are one of the most well-established conservation tools, playing a crucial role in protecting biodiversity.

Pacific Coral Reef Action Plan 2021–2030

Many Pacific coral reefs are being damaged by habitat disturbance, pollution, fishing and climate change. Climate change is believed to be the greatest human-induced threat to corals in the Pacific region. The region needs an action plan to make cohesive decisions that will benefit coral reefs.

Pacific coral reef monitoring assessment

The assessment aligns with the Pacific Coral Reef Action Plan 2021–2030, supporting key action areas such as capacity building, habitat conservation, and research utilisation.

Pacific Islands Framework for Nature Conservation and Protected Areas 2021- 2025

This Pacific Islands Framework for Nature Conservation and Protected Areas2021-2025 is the principal regional strategy document for environmental conservation in the Pacific.

Pacific Islands Framework for Nature Conservation and Protected Areas 2021-2025

This Pacific Islands Framework for Nature Conservation and Protected Areas 2021-2025 is the principal regional strategy document for environmental conservation in the Pacific.

Pacific Islands Framework for Nature Conservation and Protected Areas 2021-2025

This new Pacific Islands framework for Nature Conservation and Protected Areas 2021-2025 was endorsed during the conference and subsequently at the 30th SPREP Meeting by 26 members countries and territories in 2021.

Pacific Islands Marine Portal

The Pacific Islands Marine Portal provides various information on the status of marine protected areas and much more.

Pacific Islands Ocean Conference (PIOC) Report, Heritage Hotel Honiara, Solomon Islands, 29 September - 3 October 2025.

The core objective of the conference was to provide a cross-disciplinary space that fosters new knowledge, inspires learning, and strengthens the science–policy interface.

Pacific Islands Regional Marine Species Programme 2022–2026

The Pacific Islands Regional Marine Species Programme (Marine Species Programme) of the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) is a regional strategy for conserving and managing dugong, marine turtles, whales and dolphins, sharks and rays, and seabirds, referred to thro

Pacific Seabirds Survey and monitoring Manual. Tools to Support Seabird Conservation across Ecosystems in Oceania

The goal of this manual is to encourage and support seabird conservation and research across the region, particularly in areas where this work is just starting out.

Padezaka Tribal Rainforest Conservation Area Management Plan - Choiseul Province, Solomon Islands

This Management Plan was prepared by the representatives of the Padezaka Tribe in partnership with the Natural Resources Development Foundation (NRDF), Integrated Forest Management Program (IFMP) and Ecological Solutions Solomon Islands (ESSI) in Choiseul.

Papua New Guinea Conservation Needs Assessment, Synopsis Report

The Conservation Needs Assessment (CNA) for Papua New Guinea was requested by the government of Papua New Guinea and funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

Papua New Guinea Policy on Protected Areas

This Policy on Protected Areas (the Policy) has been developed by the Government of Papua New Guinea to support the development and management of a National Protected Area Network in Papua New Guinea (PNG).

PARKS The International Journal of Protected Areas and Conservation, Issue 27 Special Issue on COVID-19 MARCH 2021

This special issue of PARKS is devoted to the impact and implications of COVID-19 on the world’s protected and conserved areas.

Participatory monitoring drives biodiversity knowledge in global protected areas

Protected areas are central in strategies to conserve biodiversity. Effective area-based conservation relies on biodiversity data, but the current biodiversity knowledge base is insufficient and limited by geographic and taxonomic biases.

Partner support and interactions with communities show mixed effects on governance of community-based resources

Community-based natural resource management is recognized as an effective area-based conservation approach. Accordingly, conservation organizations worldwide are providing support to local communities seeking to sustainably manage and use their local natural resources.

Perceived Equity in Marine Management and Conservation : Exploring Gender Intersectionality in Fiji.

Understanding perceived equity is key, equity subjective, context-dependent and has implications for legitimacy, cooperation and wellbeing.

Perspectives on Marine Protected Areas

Different perspectives to best manage the Pacific Ocean in the interests of all who live there.

PICRC publishes study on longnose emperor spawning aggregation

Since 2023, the Palau International Coral Reef Center (PICRC) has been collaborating with the Koror State Government (KSG) to conduct research and monitoring aimed at providing essential baseline data to guide the Koror Southern Lagoon Coastal Fisheries Management Plan, a new fisheries management

PIPAP GIS Supplementary Training Video 1 : QGIS Basics

This package/collection of training materials constitute an introductory, basic-level training to open source GIS software (QGIS) targeting technical-level government officers.

PIPAP GIS Supplementary Training Video 2 : Building Maps in QGIS

This package/collection of training materials constitute an introductory, basic-level training to open source GIS software (QGIS) targeting technical-level government officers.

PIPAP GIS Supplementary Training Video 3 : Mapping GPS Data in QGIS

This package/collection of training materials constitute an introductory, basic-level training to open source GIS software (QGIS) targeting technical-level government officers.

Post-2020 biodiversity framework challenged by cropland expansion in protected areas

Protected areas (PAs) are essential for biodiversity conservation but are threatened by cropland expansion. Recent studies have only reported global cropland expansion in large PAs between 1990 and 2005.