Marine conservation benefits
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Context
A Marine Protected Area, or MPA, is part of the ocean that is legally protected and managed to achieve the long-term conservation of nature. Activities that pose a risk to the conservation objectives of an MPA may be prohibited, restricted or managed to ensure the long-term protection of the site. By protecting these areas over time, MPAs help maintain and secure a range of ecological, social, cultural and economic benefits for Canadians.
Benefits to people are realized when protection is effective, and healthy habitats and marine life continue to support the ecosystem services that people depend on, including:
- food provision
- coastal protection
- recreation
- cultural connections
- well-being
Studies from around the world show that MPAs can deliver a range of benefits across ecological, social, cultural and economic aspects of life. While the ecological value of marine conservation is widely recognized, the economic, social and cultural benefits are often less well understood and under-communicated.
As Canada advances to meet its commitment to protect 30% of coastal and marine areas by 2030, effective marine protected and conserved areas can contribute to measurable outcomes that help secure real-world benefits for people by supporting fisheries, community well-being and long-term ocean resilience. Around the world, a range of conservation benefits have been documented across different protected areas, including those listed below:
Fisheries
- Habitat
- Spawning and nursery areas
- Spillover
- Water quality
- Forage species
Innovation and research
- New monitoring tools
- Adaptive management
- Baseline conditions
Coastal communities and municipalities
- Coastal protection
- Erosion reduction
- Storm buffering
- Flood risk reduction
Climate regulation
- Seabed carbon storage
- Blue carbon ecosystems
- Long-term sequestration
- Climate resilience
Indigenous rights and well-being
- Food systems
- Cultural practices
- Stewardship
- Intergenerational knowledge
Biodiversity and species at risk
- Habitat integrity
- Recovery potential
- Genetic diversity
- Ecosystem resilience
Value of marine conservation
Ecosystem services describe the benefits that people receive from nature. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) 2020 report Sustainable Ocean for All, the ocean provides ecosystem services valued at about $49.2 trillion CAD per year. This underscores what many Canadians already know:
Protecting and conserving the ocean is not only a matter of environmental stewardship; it is also foundational to long-term economic and social well-being.
Statistics Canada’s Ecosystem spotlight—oceans estimates that Canada’s oceans and coastal ecosystems deliver about $7.1 billion CAD in selected ecosystem services, largely from:
- carbon sequestration
- commercially harvested wild fish and seafood
- nature-based tourism
These are partial, experimental estimates at broad scales and are not attributed directly to marine protected and conserved areas.
As Canada advances toward its commitment to protect 30% of coastal and marine areas by 2030, there is a growing need to better understand, quantify and communicate the benefits of marine protected and conserved areas. This includes identifying how conservation actions support outcomes that matter to:
- marine user groups
- coastal communities
- governance partners
- decision makers
Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) is advancing this work as part of its broader approach to marine conservation. This will help build the evidence needed to demonstrate the value of protected and conserved areas in Canada.
Initial areas of focus include:
- thematic assessments that explore how MPAs can contribute to key benefit areas, including:
- blue carbon storage
- sustainable fisheries
- innovation and research
- structured gathering of evidence of benefits, through:
- review of existing science
- review of MPA management documents
- scientific interviews with DFO MPA site experts
Evidence of conservation benefits in Canada
As we advance sites towards the marine conservation targets, DFO is working to better understand, document and communicate the benefits associated with marine protected and conserved areas in Canada.
In 2025, DFO began to examine strength of evidence for benefits associated with Oceans Act MPAs. This work helps build a clearer picture of how existing MPAs are contributing to ecological, social, cultural and economic outcomes. It also highlights where more information may be needed. The review drew on multiple sources of evidence, including:
- peer-reviewed science publications
- Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat documents (research documents and science advisory reports)
- MPA establishment documents (such as regulatory impact analysis statements)
- documents produced by DFO (such as MPA annual reports)
- information gathered through a series of scientific interviews
This research assessed 20 benefits across 4 dimensions:
Ecological
- Biodiversity
- Commercial species
- Ecological integrity
- Habitat
- Resilience
- Valued ecosystem components
Social
- Capacity
- Innovation
- Literacy
- Research
- Social acceptance
- Well-being
- Collaboration
Cultural
- Cultural sites
- Indigenous knowledge
- Indigenous language
- Traditions
Economic
- Employment
- Fisheries access
- Tourism
Evidence gathered to date shows that Oceans Act MPAs are associated with a range of conservation benefits. The strongest evidence is often linked to ecological outcomes that directly align with each site’s conservation objectives. Beyond ecological benefits, MPAs can also support broader outcomes, including:
- strengthend relationships with partners and stakeholders
- enhanced research and monitoring opportunities
- innovation in conservation tools, technologies and management approaches
- increased understanding of the social, cultural and economic value of marine conservation
Seabed Carbon: An example of benefits associated with MPAs
Canada’s marine protected and conserved areas contain blue carbon ecosystems. These include:
- salt marshes
- seagrass meadows
- macroalgae beds
- seabed sediments
Blue carbon ecosystems take up carbon dioxide (CO2) and store that carbon over the long-term. These ecosystems are important for achieving Canada’s climate change goals.
DFO’s early estimate suggests that sediment on the seafloor in Canada’s marine protected and conserved areas may store more than one billion tonnes of carbon. This includes:
- Marine Protected Areas established under the Oceans Act
- marine other effective area-based conservation measures, namely marine refuges
This is similar to the amount of carbon that Parks Canada estimates is stored in Canada’s national park forests (about 1.4 billion tonnes).
More data is needed to provide a current and complete estimate for all of Canada’s marine protected and conserved areas. This estimate does not include carbon stored in other types of blue carbon ecosystems (for example, salt marshes and seagrass meadows).
Related information
- Report on Evaluating Blue Carbon as an Effective Climate Mitigation Strategy for Canada
- Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s 2026-27 Departmental Plan
- Blue Carbon Canada
- Protection of seabed sediments in Canada’s marine conservation network for potential climate change mitigation co-benefit
- Predictive mapping of organic carbon stocks in surficial sediments of the Canadian continental margin
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