Achieving 30x30 through collaboration and partnership across a global network of MPA managers

To advance the capacity of managers across 16 countries who are responsible for 32 large-scale marine protected areas (LSMPAs), the Alliance partnered with Big Ocean to increase collaboration between practitioners and ocean funders, while contributing to enhanced knowledge management and the development of new tools and lessons.

The budding field of large-scale ocean management requires intentional collaboration between researchers, managers, and practitioners to design a knowledge base for protecting large swaths of offshore ocean spaces. Big Ocean addresses this by strengthening connections among managers and practitioners to meet the priority needs of those working on the ground globally.

Key Takeaways from the Big Ocean 2021 Summit and Survey:

1. Supporting a diverse and informed community of practice is essential; building management capacity alone is insufficient.
2. Decision-making processes must include Indigenous peoples and communities, customary authorities, and rights-holders.
3. Understanding the impacts of a site’s enabling environment must be prioritized to enhance long-term durability.
4. Increased budgets and more effective sustainable financing mechanisms are required.

Of the 17,000+ MPAs globally, 70% of current ocean protection comes from approximately 41 sites. Based on this element alone, we must prioritize the effective use of the LSMPA model and improve global support and resourcing for these managing agencies. Although only a handful of large-scale MPAs have existed long enough to provide comprehensive advice across all sectors of management, the partnership between the Alliance and Big Ocean offers greater opportunities for replication through shared learning and synergy across the full range of communities interested in ocean management at scale.

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

To meet this target, Component 4 (Global Enabling Conditions to Scale Up Ocean Conservation) will cultivate the global conditions necessary to reach the ambitious goal of protecting 30% of the world’s ocean. This work will include new science, tools, capacity-building, innovations, and policies directly related to large-scale ocean conservation, thereby supporting both individual sites and broader regions.

This IWEN (International Waters Experience Note) spotlights an activity within Outcome 4.2: Knowledge management and learning for large-scale and transboundary ocean conservation strengthened and expanded. This activity aims to increase the knowledge, capacity, and tools required to implement ocean conservation at scale and/or transboundary ocean governance. To maximize the utility of these convenings and publications, the Blue Nature Alliance partnered with Big Ocean to increase collaboration between practitioners and ocean funders. This partnership enhances knowledge management and supports the development of new tools and lessons to advance the capacity of managers across 16 countries responsible for 32 large-scale marine protected areas (LSMPAs).

Big Ocean is the only peer-learning network created "by managers, for managers" of large-scale marine areas. A staunch advocate and leader in the field of LSMPAs since its inception in 2010, Big Ocean has fostered a vibrant Community of Practice that supports best-practice management in 17 countries.

Big Ocean aims to:

• Provide a forum for communication and networking through which managers of large-scale MPAs can improve their management efforts.
• Foster an understanding of the unique social, cultural, and ecological values of large-scale MPAs.
• Contribute to the protection of the world’s oceans by sharing resources and supporting effective management and scientific research.
• Communicate the conclusions and findings of the network’s efforts.

Big Ocean’s leadership and collaboration within the Alliance’s Component 4 focus on prioritizing the capacity, resilience, and durability of the network through activities that add value to Alliance site engagements. By leveraging Big Ocean’s membership base and increasing capacity-building resources, this partnership will support and engage LSMPAs within the Alliance pipeline.

Beyond the numerous ecological, economic, and cultural benefits that large-scale MPAs provide, they are a vital tool for achieving global marine conservation targets, such as the 30x30 initiative, which calls for the protection of at least 30% of marine and coastal areas by 2030. The vast scale of these managed and protected areas accentuates their intergovernmental and global significance; they often influence international marine policies in ways that smaller-scale MPAs cannot. Furthermore, the UN and other international bodies are exploring the establishment of MPAs on the high seas in areas beyond national jurisdiction, signaling that large-scale marine conservation is a matter of global importance.

The budding field of large-scale ocean management requires intentional collaboration between researchers, managers, and practitioners to design a robust knowledge base for protecting large swaths of offshore ocean space. This activity addresses these challenges by strengthening connections among managers and practitioners to meet the priority needs of those working on the ground globally.

The power of Big Ocean lies in its role as a neutral convener of diverse audiences, creating "safe spaces" (both virtual and live) where practitioners, managers, scientists, and cross-sector partners can share lessons learned while building capacity and personal relationships in real-time. Because the needs of individual sites vary widely, the network has developed a variety of activities, processes, and products to produce tangible, practical, and actionable outcomes.

Action 1: LSMPA Managers’ Virtual Summit Hosted and facilitated by Big Ocean with support from the Blue Nature Alliance, the inaugural two-day LSMPA Managers’ Virtual Summit was held in Fall 2021. The summit aimed to strengthen connections among managers and practitioners and to address the priority needs of those actively working in the field globally.

Participants were primarily managers of large-scale marine managed and protected areas. The second-largest group consisted of conservation professionals focused on large-scale ocean initiatives, along with several community representatives. The gender split was approximately 50/50, with 15% of participants representing (or self-identifying as) Indigenous peoples.

The agenda focused on the needs, challenges, and priorities of managers. However, as community engagement is a vital element of best-practice management, the group dialogue emphasized the importance of understanding and building relationships with rights-holders and stakeholders.

• Day 1: Where is the field? Calibration across the Community of Practice. This session examined the current status of sites and core management areas based on survey outcomes. A series of "ignite talks" covered science and research, sustainable financing, funder and NGO partnerships, education and outreach, human dimensions, and enabling conditions.

• Day 2: What’s Next? Priorities for the Future. Participants explored how the learnings from Day 1 could be applied to create more effective management teams capable of engaging communities and producing durable, resilient sites. The objective was to develop site-level priorities and identify how Big Ocean could better serve the broader Community of Practice.

At the opening of each day, a synthesis of relevant pre-survey outcomes was presented. A final report outlining the design process and results was submitted one month following the summit.

Action 2: Human Dimensions of Large-Scale Marine Protected Area Management Survey A research group—consisting of Rebecca Gruby (Colorado State University), Noella Gray (University of Guelph), and Lisa Campbell (Duke University)—designed the pre-survey that served as the framework for the summit agenda. This exploratory survey collected baseline information on the status of LSMPA management and implementation globally.

The survey included questions regarding management progress and priorities, as well as how Big Ocean could best serve the LSMPA community. While the sample size was relatively small (30 respondents representing 15 LSMPAs), it provided a starting point for identifying trends across the field. The results reflect a range of views across the represented sites rather than a generalization of the entire LSMPA field.

The data stems from two separate online surveys administered to Big Ocean Summit registrants in August 2021. Participants chose the survey that best suited their experience:

1. Site-specific survey: For those with in-depth knowledge of at least one LSMPA site.

2. General survey: For those with generalized knowledge of LSMPAs without specific site experience.

Action 1: LSMPA Managers’ Summit Fall 2021 – High-Level Outcomes

1. Diverse Participation: 85 participants attended, including LSMPA managers, site representatives, community members, scholars, and practitioners from the broader community of practice.

2. Social Science Foundation: Members from the 2016 Think Tank on the Human Dimensions of Large-Scale MPAs designed the summit survey, setting the stage for a long-term social science dataset.

3. The "Scale" Mantra: Big Ocean's informal tagline was validated: "Bigger isn't better, but size and scale matter." 4. The 70% Factor: Of the 17,000+ MPAs globally, 70% of current ocean protection is provided by approximately 41 sites. This highlights the urgent need to effectively support the LSMPA model and resource the agencies managing these sites.

Outcomes from Breakout and Group Discussions:

• Finance & Innovation: Increased budgets and more effective sustainable financing mechanisms are critical. No single LSMPA is fully funded; current mechanisms are often too inflexible, favoring "high-impact, near-term outputs" over the actual long-term needs of sites and communities. A "silver lining" is that management teams have become highly innovative and partnership-oriented to compensate for budget gaps.

• Enabling Environments: Prioritizing the "enabling environment" is essential for durability. Awareness of a site’s broader political and social context is critical, especially in regions with variable political shifts or historically challenging relationships with the conservation sector.

• Knowledge Management: Building management capacity alone is insufficient. Managers need a wider range of expertise to track emerging trends and critical issues. Survey results revealed a communication gap between those working to amplify global conservation efforts and those managing sites on the ground.

• Inclusive Decision-Making: Processes must move beyond the generic term "community engagement" to effectively include Indigenous peoples, customary authorities, and rights-holders. Approaches historically designed by non-Indigenous actors must change to offer communities more resources to engage meaningfully with managing agencies.

• Continuous Learning: Regular surveys and peer-to-peer learning are essential for long-term success. The community must develop more nuanced ways to evaluate success—moving beyond simple "yes/no" questions regarding funding or political support to capture the true complexity of site management.

Action 2: Survey Data Summary

A global survey of the LSMPA Community of Practice was conducted in Summer 2021, with key findings published in September 2021.

Key Highlights:

• Participation: 30 total respondents (18 site-specific; 12 general).

• Coverage: 15 unique sites were covered across both surveys.

• Common Challenges: Budget and staff capacity constraints, limitations in surveillance and enforcement, and insufficient monitoring.

• "Bright Spots": High frequency of management plans in place, decreasing conflict, strong political support, and tangible progress toward management objectives.

• Shared Priorities: Scaling sustainable financing, increasing monitoring knowledge, building capacity, and addressing equity.

Strategies for Progress:

• Diversify funding through sustainable financing plans.

• Collaborate on research and monitoring initiatives.

• Improve the depth and quality of community engagement.

• Leverage learning opportunities within the LSMPA network.

Further Analysis: Gruby, R.L., Gray, N.J., Lewis. N. 2021. Management progress and priorities for large-scale marine protected area management. DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.16699732

Nearly all elements of the strategy pursued in this case rely on amplification, replicability, and sustainability being at the forefront of the collaborative design process for all tools, products, and approaches. The partnership between the Blue Nature Alliance and Big Ocean to grow the "global enabling conditions to scale up ocean conservation" will only be successful if the following conditions are met:

1. Ensure Long-Term Utility: Deliverables must have a long "shelf life" and be co-developed with the next decade in mind.

2. Clarify Roles: Partner roles and expectations must be clearly prioritized to reduce the administrative burden on all parties.

3. Optimize Knowledge Management: Efforts must strive to solve knowledge management challenges to maximize outcomes and longevity.

4. Maintain Responsiveness: The field must remain relevant by advocating for donors to embrace a "trust-based philanthropic approach," encouraging investment in outcomes that allow for shifting activities in response to evolving needs.

5. Ensure Inclusive Engagement: Indigenous peoples, local communities, and women must be effectively engaged in both the design and implementation of management.

6. Strengthen Institutional Health: Big Ocean’s long-term institutional health must be optimized through the pursuit of diversified, innovative, and sustainable funding mechanisms.

Big Ocean is the only network developed "by managers, for managers" that also supports best-practice protocols, peer learning, and the professionalization of the field. Fulfilling the network’s vision—alongside its commitments to the Alliance—will simultaneously enhance the mission of individual LSMPAs and contribute to the durability of the broader field. By partnering to support the network’s longevity, increasing its impact, and amplifying the role of large-scale ocean protection in achieving 2030 targets, the Alliance aims to build communities of practice rooted in people and local communities.

Member sites of Big Ocean globally represent 16 nations or territories, covering over 16.6 million sq km of ocean (4.6% of the global total). In the coming years, due in large part to the grant from the Blue Nature Alliance GEF Project, Big Ocean is expected to take on at least a dozen new member sites. While current LSMPAs range in size from Australia’s 110,149-sq-km Lord Howe Commonwealth Marine Reserve to the Cook Islands' 1.9 million-sq-km Marae Moana, an increasing number of nations are establishing sites that encompass their entire Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

Although only a handful of LSMPAs have existed long enough to provide comprehensive advice across all sectors of management, the partnership between the Alliance and Big Ocean offers significant opportunities for replication through learning and synergy. Depending on the definition used, the field currently consists of 33 to 41 sites—a fivefold increase since Big Ocean launched. With so many new areas, durability and effectiveness will be facilitated by transforming real-world experience into practical guidance, producing well-designed sites, adaptive management regimes, and enhanced ocean governance models.

As technology opens new possibilities, it will also increase pressures on the ocean, challenging even the most robust management regimes. Big Ocean aims to address these challenges by adding expertise to the field and supporting the development of additional tools and resources for both existing and new sites.

Summit outcomes reaffirmed Big Ocean’s informal tagline: "Bigger isn't better, but size and scale matter." Considering that 70% of current ocean protection is provided by just 41 Large-Scale MPAs (LSMPAs) globally, it is imperative that we effectively support the agencies tasked with managing these vast marine areas.

While the past two decades have seen increasing calls to "Go Big" with marine protection, there remain limited examples of effective, long-term governance and management models at scale. By combining and sharing lessons from both mature and recently established LSMPAs, Big Ocean supports managers in developing and refining the resources necessary for equitable and effective governance—the foundation of best-practice management.

Because guidance for the design and management of vast ocean areas is still evolving, and the needs of existing sites are often inconsistent, the advice Big Ocean provides must be equally adaptive. The future of the field requires an adaptive management approach, which is rarely linear. Consequently, the network strives to continually learn and improve the services and support it provides to members, partners, communities, and the next generation of ocean champions.