Centering Access, Quality, and Equity and Justice in a Beyond 30×30 Ocean Strategy
The Biden administration should deliver an ocean conservation framework that includes new metrics for success.
Introduction and summary
Three-fourths of the planet’s lands and two-thirds of its ocean areas have already been significantly altered by human activities—and on the current trajectory, even more biodiversity is at risk of being lost. Failure to effectively protect lands and waters globally will put more than 1 million plants and animals at risk of extinction, many within decades.
In 2021, the Biden administration set a national goal to “conserve, connect, and restore” at least 30 percent of U.S. lands and waters by 2030 through the Executive Order on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad and the America the Beautiful initiative, sometimes referred to as 30×30. The administration promised to address biodiversity loss, the climate crisis, and the lack of access to natural resources with an all-of-government approach. With the recent release of its American Conservation and Stewardship Atlas, the administration details how one-third of the ocean is conserved through a combination of marine protected areas, fisheries measures that protect deep-sea corals, and the Arctic Management Area.
The data presented in the Atlas, however, also reveal many areas for improvement in American ocean policy. For example, the Atlas finds that 26 percent of U.S. oceans are in designated marine protected areas (MPAs), but recognizes that “more work remains” to conserve a “geographically representative, ecologically connected, and climate-resilient set of marine areas off all U.S. coasts,” and to ensure that the benefits of healthy and conserved marine ecosystems are equitably shared.
Focusing exclusively on a measure of sheer area protected is not just inadequate, but also can incentivize haphazard conservation efforts. The “Beyond 30×30” framework discussed in this report would help with the design and implementation of conservation areas that more effectively serve both ecosystems and the people who rely on them. The report proposes three critical pillars for effective ocean conservation that are not captured by current area-based metrics: access, quality, and equity and justice. It also outlines three cross-cutting principles that government resource managers should consider: a holistic approach, effective management and implementation, and Indigenous knowledge. This report is a starting point toward developing specific Beyond 30×30 metrics and recognizes that some of this work is already taking place in the United States and around the world. The framework it describes provides a roadmap for improving on the existing network of protected areas during the next six years and lays the foundation for setting biodiversity goals post-2030.
Strengths and weaknesses of quantitative metrics
The Center for American Progress and others in the ocean community have cautioned against using the new atlas’s top-line numbers to measure conservation success. While measuring conservation progress is important, quality should be considered along with quantity, or the 30×30 goal risks succumbing to Goodhart’s Law, by which a measurement ceases to be a good measurement once it becomes a target.
Even so, 30×30 has been one of the most successful conservation initiatives in history, not just in the United States, but around the world. In total, 118 countries have joined a High Ambition Coalition to deliver on 30×30’s ambitious targets. Governments and philanthropic partners are pouring resources into supporting the goal, with the recent Our Ocean Conference in Athens, Greece, raising $11.3 billion in pledges toward ocean conservation. Yet while 30×30 has amassed broad, global support and momentum, the movement is not without its limitations. It is an inspiring metric for understanding, communicating, and measuring conservation success that only tells part of the story.
30×30’s narrow focus neglects the intersectionality of the environmental movement outside of conserved areas. There is still no consensus around what governments “count” as conservation. For example, Greece is the only country in the European Union to ban bottom trawling in their MPAs, and different sectors have wildly opposing views. Moreover, area targets do not ensure quality MPA designations: Many MPAs are poorly designed, poorly implemented, and unjust.
Additionally, many existing marine protected areas lack proper management and enforcement of protections. For example, three of the largest U.S. marine protected areas, including the Mariana Trench Marine National Monument, have yet to publish final management plans, despite being designated during the Bush and Obama administrations. Furthermore, the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the foundational law for managing U.S. fisheries, has not been updated since 2007, and much work remains to address modern threats such as climate change and the biodiversity crisis. For example, while a single stock of Snohomish coho salmon was rebuilt in 2023, the overfished status of 48 percent of the 506 managed American fish stocks is unknown. This makes it difficult to assess if MPA designations are effective tools to rebuild stocks.
“Most existing MPAs in the United States are located in remote offshore areas, while coastal habitats and species that are most important for people and biodiversity are underrepresented and under threat.”
In addition, 30×30 does not ensure that U.S. MPAs are distributed in a way that allows equitable access to natural resources. Most existing MPAs in the United States are located in remote offshore areas, while coastal habitats and species that are most important for people and biodiversity are underrepresented and under threat. Notably, vast areas are protected across the remote Pacific Ocean, especially around the U.S. Pacific territories, but very few are protected around the contiguous United States. This geographic representation of MPA designations can lead to equity and justice issues, with small, isolated communities made to carry conservation burdens but not given the support they need to participate in ongoing research and management.
Even though the United States has conserved one-third of its ocean waters, it is clear the national target to protect 30 percent of the U.S. ocean by 2030 is not enough to address the multiple threats it faces, such as climate change, pollution, harmful fishing, and habitat loss. National ocean conservation efforts need to go beyond 30×30 and embrace a more holistic, inclusive, and effective approach that considers the who and how of conservation. The United States needs to create equitable networks of protected areas that both contain different habitat types along a spectrum of protection levels and are adequately staffed and funded.
Beyond 30x30: Qualitative measures of conservation success
Achieving a healthy, sustainable ocean requires the conservation movement to go beyond 30×30. Additional metrics to define success should be developed in parallel with attempts to increase the acreage of protected areas across the country. Specifically, the ocean community needs to develop metrics to measure conservation success in terms of improving access to ocean resources, improving the quality of marine protected area networks, and prioritizing equity and justice in ocean conservation. This will ensure that the United States is not just meeting the numerical targets, but also creating a holistic network of MPAs that are geographically representative, just, well designed, and well managed. The changes necessary to go beyond 30×30 require innovative collaboration, participation, and empowerment of diverse stakeholders in ocean decision-making and management.
Improving access to ocean resources
The America the Beautiful initiative provides an opportunity for the United States to correct historical inequities in access to nature. A 2022 report from CAP and the Hispanic Access Foundation found that 90 percent of the U.S. coast lacked strong access protections. The United States’ long history of segregation, racial discrimination, and exclusion has led to restrictive coastal access policies. Countless instances of exclusion can be found across the country, through restrictive parking, privatization of beaches, and outright seizure of property. The CAP report recommended that coastal projects that use federal funds be required to provide coastal access; that the Biden administration create a federal Equitable Coastal Access Advisory Group; that local, state, and federal governments work to improve all dimensions of public access; and that state and federal government protect and conserve more coastal areas.
The public trust doctrine establishes the public’s right to use and access U.S. coasts and tidal waterways. Each state and territory is responsible for its own implementation, enforcement, and protection of this public trust, resulting in varying levels of public access to the coasts. For example, Oregon guarantees free and public access to its coasts but faces ongoing challenges from private property owners, while in Maine, beaches can be—and typically are—privately owned down to the low tide line.
The White House Ocean Justice Strategy, released in December 2023, begins the work of improving access by directing agencies to participate in meaningful engagement with communities—specifically ocean justice communities—that are affected by agency actions related to the ocean. On federal lands, the strategy also recommends improving coastal access for people with disabilities, such as with ramps at beach entrances, and commits its author—the White House Ocean Policy Committee—to collaborating with states and territories on coastal access, as well as working to improve coastal access on federal land.
Improving the quality of MPAs
Focusing on 30×30 alone may, counterintuitively, incentivize ineffective conservation efforts that prioritize quantity over quality. Area targets may make it more difficult to prioritize nearshore areas, as these places tend to be much smaller than the pelagic realms in the expansive western Pacific territories, where nearly all the protected areas in the United States are located. Despite designations in these smaller areas being ecologically important, they may not be prioritized if the only goal is to maximize conservation area.
The U.S. MPA network lacks representation of other habitat types in other geographies, including many nearshore areas. Many of the ocean areas in the United States under the greatest threat—and those that are the most important to peoples, cultures, economies, biodiversity conservation, and carbon sequestration—are much closer to shore in places with larger numbers of people. Habitats including salt marshes, seagrass, mangroves, and coral reefs, and keystone species such as oysters, kelp, and salmon, have supported communities of people for millennia in North America, and all are threatened by human use, development, pollution, and climate change.
The United States’ current system of ocean conservation has not effectively protected some of its most threatened ecosystems. For example, only 3.6 percent of kelp habitat in the United States is fully protected. Globally, only 2.5 percent of tropical coral reefs are formally protected, and in the United States, the percentage varies dramatically by location. Meanwhile, more than half of all mangrove ecosystems are at risk of collapse by 2050.
Rather than focusing on area alone, therefore, ocean conservation efforts should prioritize real benefits for biodiversity and ecosystems. Ocean protection can vary in quality and effectiveness, depending on the level of protection, the management regime, the enforcement capacity, and the ecological representativeness and connectivity. Numerous tools exist to help measure and plan for high-quality MPAs, including The MPA Guide, the Marine Conservation Institute’s Blue Parks, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Green List, and the Lenfest Marine Biodiversity Dialogues.
Evidence is emerging that a diverse portfolio of marine protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures will better advance global conservation. Importantly, these conservation measures must offer various levels of protection, in diverse geographies, and with different levels of human pressure. Nearshore regions with larger nearby communities will undoubtedly have more complex processes to develop conservation strategies, but addressing these challenges is necessary to protect some of the most threatened ecosystems. Rather than relying on area-based metrics, the U.S. strategy for MPA designation should be intentional about including ecosystem-based or people-based metrics, such as biodiversity richness, jobs created, or new ways of utilizing Indigenous knowledge. Prioritizing designations that maintain biodiversity, protect threatened species and habitats, and uphold local economies and cultures will ultimately lead to more effective conservation.
These actions also open the opportunity to create new narratives around coastal conservation and fisheries management. Restoring kelp and oysters will do more than just protect ecosystems; it will also create jobs, celebrate Indigenous knowledge, and build power among communities that have historically been marginalized in conservation efforts.
Prioritizing equity and justice in ocean conservation
“Ocean justice means ensuring that the benefits and burdens of ocean use and protection are shared equitably and inclusively among all people.”
The people and the processes involved in developing ocean conservation strategies matter as much as the outcomes. Ocean justice is where ocean stewardship, social inclusion, and justice intersect. It focuses on addressing environmental justice concerns related to the use of the ocean for economic, nutritional, cultural, spiritual, and recreational purposes. Ocean justice means ensuring that the benefits and burdens of ocean use and protection are shared equitably and inclusively among all people. It means advancing the voices, participation, and leadership of historically excluded and marginalized communities in ocean decision-making. And it means creating a conservation movement that is more diverse, inclusive, and just.
The Biden administration has laid out an Ocean Climate Action Plan and an Ocean Justice Strategy to make ocean conservation more equitable and just, but much work remains to implement both plans across the government and within coastal communities. This will include prioritizing underserved communities; following the leadership of Indigenous and Tribal peoples; and working together with local communities, fishers, aquaculture farmers, and other stakeholders and resource owners to create a network of geographically representative MPAs that are just, well-designed, and well managed. For example, the Biden administration recently announced a federal policy establishing a consultation policy with Native Hawaiians, and Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) has introduced legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives that would establish special advisors for insular areas in each federal agency. The people who live closest to ocean resources should be able to participate in their ongoing management.
An example of this new outside-of-government approach is the 2022 creation of the America the Beautiful for All Coalition. More than 200 partners have joined together to advocate for the dual goals of protecting 30 percent of U.S. lands and waters through the use of Justice40 metrics. The coalition has created governance structures and funding mechanisms to bring historically marginalized voices and communities into the mainstream conservation movement, sparking new ideas based on different ways of knowing. For example, the concepts being developed as Beyond 30×30 on the ocean emerged out of the work of this coalition and are outlined in the coalition’s “2024 Policy Agenda.”
A growing wave of leaders is championing justice and equity in ocean policy. For example, in June 2023, Azul, the Center for American Progress, and Urban Ocean Lab co-hosted the first Upwell symposium, where, both in person and online, several coalition members and other experts discussed the rising tide of ocean justice and the need for more inclusive and diverse voices in ocean decision-making. Additionally, the Healthy Ocean Coalition hosts ocean justice-centered healthy ocean advocacy academies. Since 2016, these events have offered space for more than 250 grassroots and front-line community leaders to meet, learn from each other, build relationships, and strategize actionable steps for a more just and equitable future for ocean conservation.
Beyond 30x30: Cross-cutting principles
The following aspects of the Beyond 30×30 framework are inclusive of access, quality, and equity and justice.
Taking a holistic approach
Beyond 30×30 encourages moving beyond area targets to deliver a network of MPAs that are effective and equitable. This framework supports the capacity of U.S. public lands and waters to perform multiple roles, including providing food, protecting threatened species, combating climate change, and acting as sacred places. It emphasizes seeing the bigger picture and the importance of a diverse set of ocean conservation goals outside of 30×30.
Fostering effective management and implementation
Most countries include protected areas in their 30×30 accounting when the areas are designated, but Beyond 30×30 calls for raising the bar to effective management. Policies to protect nature and improve access, quality, and equity and justice in protected areas need to be not only designed and agreed upon but also funded and staffed to ensure they are implemented and managed effectively. Beyond implementation, there is growing evidence that areas that are actively managed result in greater biodiversity and social outcomes.
Incorporating Indigenous knowledge
Tribal and Indigenous communities have been stewards of lands, waters, and wildlife since time immemorial. Indigenous-led conservation methods provide multifaceted information about ecosystems and how to sustainably manage them, but they have been historically overlooked. An effective MPA strategy should intentionally include Indigenous traditional ecological knowledge alongside Western science.
Achieving Beyond 30x30 measures and principles
There are still several years before the 30×30 deadline, and while the United States has achieved—or is close to achieving—the quantitative metrics of ocean conservation success, this watershed moment presents an opportunity to focus the period from 2025 to 2030 on going beyond 30×30 to center access, quality, and justice and equity.
The United States can take the following steps in 2024 to achieve this vision:
Publish final management plans for the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts, Mariana Trench, and Pacific Remote Islands marine national monuments. These three protected areas alone account for 48 percent of the MPA coverage in the United States—an ocean area comparable in size to Alaska. Delivering management plans is an important milestone in moving these regions toward active management—the period when protected areas deliver the greatest conservation benefits.
Designate the following national marine sanctuaries as MPAs: Pacific Remote Islands, Chumash Heritage, Lake Ontario, Hudson Canyon, Lake Erie, and Papahānaumokuākea. These six national marine sanctuaries, currently under consideration for designation by the Biden administration, improve existing conservation frameworks, engage with and follow the leadership of Indigenous communities, and protect important historical and cultural artifacts. They must be designated and managed in a way that is consistent with the U.N. Declaration on Indigenous Rights and free, prior, and informed consent.
Direct the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to develop an ocean conservation framework that goes beyond area targets, with a particular focus on designating community-led nearshore areas in every region of the country to improve access, equity, and quality of conservation, as well as integrating sustainable use.
Conclusion
The greatest strength of 30×30 is that it sets out an ambitious, easily understandable, inspiring metric for environmental protection that has galvanized the conservation community. The highest levels of government in the United States and around the world are building conservation initiatives around this shared foundation.
But there is clearly still a lot of work to do. The United States cannot claim conservation success has been achieved at a national scale when the majority of protected areas are in the Pacific and half lack management plans. The Beyond 30×30 framework is about building on the momentum of the 30×30 movement and ensuring that ocean conservation efforts are sustainable, inclusive, just, and forward-thinking. It is about setting a foundation for the future of ocean conservation that goes beyond mere numerical targets.