Internationally designated MPAs

Protected areas can be designated under international agreements and conventions. These may be regional, such as the European Community Habitats Directive: the three principal global conventions are Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (the World Heritage Convention), the Unesco Man and the Biosphere Programme and the Ramsar Convention.

A recent review of these three global conventions found that 50 World Heritage sites have a marine component of which 33 contain a tropical marine, coastal or small island component. The oldest World Heritage Site to contain a tropical marine, coastal or small island component is the Galápagos Islands which was designated in 1978. The most frequent natural criteria for selection has been N (iv), which has been used in 23 instances: N (i) has been used in 9, N (iii) in 17 and N (ii) in 19 sites. The map displays the distribution of the tropical marine, coastal and small island ecosystems sites currently on the World Heritage list. Large areas of ocean have few or no World Heritage Sites. There are no sites in the Red Sea and Gulf of Arabia, or on the western coast of South America. There is only one site in western Africa (Banc d'Arguin National Park) and one site in eastern Africa (the Greater St. Lucia Wetland Park). By comparison with the Caribbean and South East Asia/Australia, the Indian and Pacific Oceans are poorly covered.

Twenty-five Biosphere Reserves in 14 countries contain tropical marine, coastal and small island ecosystems. The total area of these is approximately 40 million ha, of which 30.5 million ha is known to be marine. Forty-five Ramsar Sites in 24 countries cover a total area of 5.7 million ha, but the area of the marine component is unknown.