For more than 40 years, marine zoning has played a key role while evolving as part of the adaptive management of the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) Marine Park. The statutory zoning plan provides the primary integrating component that prohibits many threatening activities and manages the impacts of allowed human activities and competing uses by means of various zones, special management areas and other spatial management tools...This paper is written for planners, managers and decision‐makers considering the use of zoning to achieve effective marine conservation, protection and ecologically sustainable use.