Marine protected areas (2025)

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are geographically distinct zones for which conservation objectives can be set. They are often established in an attempt to strike a balance between ecological constraints and economic activity, so that the seas may continue to allow for goods and services to be delivered. Strictly protected areas are MPAs where human impact is kept to a minimum, e.g. extraction is not permitted.

MPA networks are a collection of individual MPAs or reserves operating synergistically, at various spatial scales, and covering a range of protection levels, designed to meet objectives that individual MPAs cannot achieve.

Marine protected areas are often established in an attempt to strike a balance between ecological constraints and economic activity, so that the seas may continue to allow for goods and services to be delivered. MPA networks are a collection of individual MPAs operating synergistically, at various spatial scales, and covering a range of protection levels, designed to meet objectives that individual MPAs cannot achieve.

Europe's seas cover an area larger than the continent itself and they host a very wide array of marine biodiversity across the biogeographic marine regions. However, the conditions for living organisms in Europe’s seas are changing faster than ever. The changes are mainly caused by changes in land and sea use, overexploitation, climate change, pollution, and invasive alien species.

The protection of coastal and marine areas is important for maintaining biodiversity. MPAs — and networks of MPAs — are a key mechanism to safeguard biodiversity and increase the resilience of ecosystems. The primary goal of MPAs is to protect marine habitats and species, by limiting or regulating human activities (e.g. fishing) that may be harmful to the marine environment.

Well-managed MPAs have been shown to be effective in conserving marine biodiversity, and are increasingly being recognised as an important tool for protecting and managing the Europe’s seas.

Status of marine protected areas in Europe’s seas

The EU marine waters include parts of open oceans as well as smaller and semi-enclosed seas. These seas are home to a diverse range of habitats that sustain thousands of species of plants and animals, a biodiversity which is the foundation for marine ecosystems and their capacity to deliver the services from which we benefit.

Marine protected areas network coverage in Europe’s seas, by the end of 2021

By 2021, a total of 12.1% of EU seas were covered by MPAs. Nevertheless this protection effort is not evenly spread throughout the marine regions and subregions. In subregions such as the Greater North Sea incl. Kattegat & English Channel and the Western Mediterranean Sea, MPA coverage reaches almost 29% and 27%, respectively. In other sub regions such as Macaronesia and parts of the Mediterranean Sea (e.g. Adriatic Sea), coverage is significantly lower.

Trends in marine protected areas and the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030. Between 2012 and 2021, the total area covered by MPAs in the EU has increased substantially – from 5.9 % to 12.1 %. An increase is observed in the Mediterranean and North-east Atlantic Ocean (from 9.5 to 19.1 % and from 4.2 to 9 % respectively) regions while a more than threefold increase is observed in the Black Sea (4.5 to 14.3 %). From a sub-regional point of view, the Bay of Biscay and the Iberian Coast, the Western Mediterranean Sea and the Greater North Sea incl. Kattegat & English Channel are the marine subregions with highest protected area surface increases in the last nine years. Explore the MPAs coverage and the temporal evolution in the interactive map below.

This is the result of both the expansion of the Natura 2000 network — a network of protected areas designated under the EU Birds and Habitats Directives — and protected areas established through complementary national designations. However, the current protected area network will need to expand at a significantly faster rate during the present decade in order to meet the ambitious 30% coverage target by the end of 2030 set by the EU Biodiversity Strategy.

Natura 2000 coverage in coastal and offshore waters

Biodiversity is rich where land and sea meet, but the near-shore area makes up only a small portion of EU’s waters compared with the vast offshore seas. Analysis of the Natura 2000 network only, indicates that its coverage is more than eight times higher in near shore (0-1 NM) waters (44 %) than in offshore (>12 NM) waters (5 %) across all EU seas. The network seldom surpasses the 40% coverage in the remaining parts of the territorial water (1-12 NM) distance belts with the exception of the Black Sea and Greater North Sea inc. Kattegat and the English Channel where it reaches, respectively, 51% and 41%.

The observed skew in coastal protection effort may be driven by the marked predominance of coastal biodiversity features contemplated by the EU Nature directives (Figure 3); particularly those that are rare and/or endemic. This, together with a lack of knowledge about species and habitats in offshore areas, has likely resulted in a biased distribution of the marine Natura 2000 network.

Figure 3: Distribution of Natura 2000 site coverage per distance belts from shore, 2021