French Polynesia has announced full protection for roughly 200,000 square miles of ocean near the Austral, Marquesas, and Western Society islands — bringing the total share of its waters under full protection to 30%, an area more than twice the size of continental France. The announcement by President Moetai Brotherson, celebrated by Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy on World Oceans Day, strengthens what is already the world’s largest network of fully protected marine areas within an exclusive economic zone.
At a glance
- Marine protected areas: The new protections cover roughly 144,340 square miles around the Austral Islands, nearly 50,000 square miles near the Marquesas Islands, and about 6,200 square miles of remote waters near the Western Society Islands.
- 30 by 30 goal: Once implemented, 30% of French Polynesia’s nearly 2 million-square-mile exclusive economic zone — about 540,500 square miles in total — will be fully shielded from extractive activities, making it a model for the global target of protecting at least 30% of the ocean by 2030 C.E.
- Traditional rāhui: The protections build on the Polynesian conservation practice of rāhui — a customary system of resource management — and reflect more than 12 years of community-led scientific, economic, and sociocultural studies across the islands.
Decades of community work behind the announcement
This milestone did not arrive suddenly. For more than a decade, communities across the Austral and Marquesas islands held hundreds of public meetings and consultations, conducted scientific and cultural expeditions, and commissioned dozens of studies covering ecology, economics, and cultural heritage. That sustained, bottom-up process shaped every boundary and rule in the new protections.
Artigas Hatitio, mayor of Rimatara in the Austral Islands, captured the depth of that effort: “We have been working on the Rahui Nui no Tuhaa Pae Marine Protected Area project for 12 years — an extension of our traditional rāhui to offshore areas. This is a significant step forward for our Austral Islands and for all of French Polynesia.”
In the Marquesas, the new Te Tai Nui a Hau Marine Protected Area follows those islands’ recent designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, layering ocean protection on top of an already recognized cultural and natural legacy. Joseph Kaiha, mayor of Ua Pou, called the new protected area “a recognition of the natural and cultural heritage of our islands.”
What gets protected — and what continues
Full protection means no extractive activities: no commercial fishing, no mining, no drilling. But the framework was carefully designed to keep space for the people who live there. Alongside the fully protected zones, more than 8,000 square miles of artisanal fishing zones will be added around the Austral Islands, and nearly 7,300 square miles around the Marquesas, covering coastal areas and nearby seamounts.
In these artisanal zones, fishing is limited to single pole-and-line catch from boats under 39 feet in length — methods that align with traditional practice and sustain local food systems without industrial-scale extraction. French Polynesia’s Minister of Agriculture, Marine Resources, and Environment Taivini Teai put it plainly: “Ambitious ocean protection and local livelihoods can go hand in hand.”
The waters being protected host exceptional marine biodiversity: seabirds, sharks, whales, and species found nowhere else on Earth, along with critical migration routes and breeding grounds. This expansion is one of many ocean and marine protection success stories emerging from community-led conservation around the world.
Building on the Tainui Atea and a growing network
The announcement builds directly on the 2025 C.E. establishment of the Tainui Atea marine protected area, which spans the full nearly 2 million-square-mile EEZ as a framework protection. Last year, French Polynesia also fully protected approximately 350,000 square miles around the Gambier and Society islands. The new 200,000-square-mile expansion brings the cumulative fully protected total to that 30% threshold.
Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy — a partnership between The Pew Charitable Trusts and philanthropist Dona Bertarelli — has supported the work in partnership with the French Polynesian government, scientists, fishers, and local organizations throughout this period. Bertarelli noted that she has returned to the islands repeatedly over more than a decade and witnessed “the deep commitment and community leadership behind this extraordinary achievement.”
Ongoing implementation will be supported by the Te Moana Collective, a coalition that includes the Becht Foundation, Bezos Earth Fund, Bloomberg Ocean Fund, Blue Marine Foundation, Blue Nature Alliance, Oceans 5, and the Wyss Foundation. Their combined role covers long-term financing, governance, scientific monitoring, and the management capacity needed to make protections durable rather than merely declared.
A model — with implementation still ahead
The announcement represents a political commitment, not yet a fully operational system. Translating designated boundaries into effective, enforced protection across some of the most remote ocean on Earth requires sustained funding, patrol capacity, and ongoing community engagement — challenges that many marine protected areas worldwide have struggled to meet after the initial declaration.
Still, French Polynesia’s approach — rooted in local leadership, traditional knowledge, and years of genuine consultation — offers something rare: a large-scale ocean protection effort that communities helped design rather than simply received. Tom Dillon of The Pew Charitable Trusts, who met with President Brotherson and local leaders earlier in 2026 C.E., said the announcement shows “that large-scale protections can be achieved through sustained political leadership, strong community engagement, and a clear long-term vision.”
Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy estimates it has supported the establishment of more than 6.5 million square miles of protected ocean globally, including roughly 90% of the world’s highly and fully protected waters. French Polynesia, a collection of islands in the South Pacific whose people have managed their ocean for generations, has now placed itself at the center of that story.
Read more
For more on this story, see: Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy
For more from Good News for Humankind, see:
- French Polynesia’s Tainui Atea: the world’s largest fully protected marine area
- Papua New Guinea establishes the Western Manus Marine Protected Area
- The Good News for Humankind archive on marine conservation
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