Research · At the Current Pace, the 30x30 Ocean Protection Target Would Take 265 Years, Greenpeace Warns

Research · At the Current Pace, the 30x30 Ocean Protection Target Would Take 265 Years, Greenpeace Warns

A new Greenpeace study, "Well Connected", released on October 19, 2026 as the UN Conference on Biological Diversity gets under way in Armenia, finds that only 3.5% of the world's oceans are currently fully or highly protected from destructive activities such as overfishing and deep-sea mining. At the present rate of progress, the organisation calculates, the international community's target of protecting at least 30% of the oceans by 2030 — the "30x30" goal — would not be reached for another 265 years. The report focuses on connectivity: 80% of the habitats where leatherback turtles face medium-to-high bycatch risk lie outside the protected areas currently proposed. Greenpeace proposes a network of 17 interconnected protected areas covering 31% of the Atlantic high seas, which it estimates would also cover almost 45% of humpback-whale danger zones and reduce ship-strike risk — an argument that for migratory marine species, a connected network delivers far more protection than the same area scattered as isolated reserves.

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