Papua New Guinea plans a vast marine sanctuary in the Western Manus area
Papua New Guinea has presented a plan to establish the Western Manus Marine Protected Area, a vast ocean sanctuary where, according to available information, the exploitation of living and non-living marine resources would be prohibited. The planned area would cover almost 200,000 square kilometers of sea, bringing it close in surface area to the size of the United Kingdom. It is an area in the Bismarck Sea, near Manus Province, in the north of the country, in a part of the Pacific Ocean that belongs to the Coral Triangle, one of the most biologically rich marine areas in the world. According to available descriptions of the plan, protection would be aimed at coral reefs, large pelagic species, marine mammals, sharks, rays and fish populations on which coastal communities depend. If it is formally declared and effectively implemented, the new area would significantly increase the share of sea under a stricter protection regime in a country that has one of the most indented and biologically valuable marine zones in the western Pacific.
Why Manus is important for marine biodiversity
The area around Manus Island and neighboring island groups lies on the edge of the Coral Triangle, a region that extends through parts of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste. According to the Coral Triangle Initiative, this region is a center of international cooperation in the protection of coral reefs, fisheries and food security, and it includes marine ecosystems on which numerous coastal communities directly depend. WWF describes the Coral Triangle as a global center of marine biodiversity, with an exceptionally large number of coral, fish, mangrove and seagrass species. In such a context, Manus is not only a remote island province, but part of a wider system of reefs, open sea and migration corridors for species that cross national borders.
According to reports from scientific expeditions in Western Manus, exceptional density and diversity of marine life have been recorded in shallower reef habitats. Post-Courier, citing the research team of the Pristine Seas expedition in Papua New Guinea, reported that divers in the Hermit Islands area documented reefs they described as among the best they had explored so far. The same outlet stated that researchers around Harengan and the neighboring islands of Ameng, Ape and Pinyang collected data indicating that local reefs are under pressure, but that they still have the conditions for recovery if management involving local communities continues. Such findings add weight to plans for broader protection because they show that the area is not only ecologically valuable, but also potentially capable of regeneration if the pressure from fishing and other activities is reduced.
What a no-take regime means
The planned protected area is described as a no-take zone, that is, a marine area in which fishing, mineral extraction, drilling, collecting organisms or other activities that remove natural resources from the ecosystem are not permitted. According to National Geographic educational materials, such zones represent the strictest form of marine protection because the goal is not only to regulate the use of the sea, but to leave ecosystems space for recovery without direct exploitation. In practice, this means that fish populations could reach greater abundance and age, reef resilience could increase, and over time part of the biomass from protected cores could spill over into surrounding areas where fishing is permitted under rules.
Such an approach is particularly important in oceans where pressures are multiple. Coral reefs do not suffer only from the consequences of overfishing, but also from sea warming, ocean acidification, pollution, sedimentation and extreme weather events. In Papua New Guinea, an additional challenge is that many coastal communities rely on fish, shellfish, sea cucumbers, lobsters and other marine resources as a source of food and income. For that reason, the issue of marine protection is simultaneously an ecological, economic and social issue. If strictly protected areas are introduced without the participation of local communities, they can provoke resistance; if they are shaped in cooperation with them, they can become a tool for long-term food security and the recovery of fish stocks.
The role of local communities and traditional management
Previous experience in Papua New Guinea shows that marine protection cannot be merely an administrative decision made in the capital. The Wildlife Conservation Society reported that two large marine protected areas were declared in 2023 in the Lovongai and Murat jurisdictions in New Ireland Province after almost seven years of a process in which more than 9,000 people from more than 100 coastal communities participated. According to WCS, those areas covered more than 16,000 square kilometers and more than tripled the country’s marine protection at the time. This example shows how long and politically sensitive the process of establishing large marine areas is in a country where the formal legal system must be aligned with local customs, ownership relations and traditional rights to use the sea.
In Manus Province, forms of locally managed marine areas, known as LMMA, already exist and rely on communities, local rules and traditional knowledge. In its report on the expedition around Harengan, Post-Courier stated that in the Pacific such forms of management are connected with customary practices known by the names tambu, tabu, ra’ui or bul. Through them, communities can temporarily or permanently restrict fishing, protect spawning grounds or designate areas where resources are restored. For the Western Manus plan, one of the key questions will therefore be how to connect large, state-level marine protection with existing local rules and the real needs of residents who live by the sea.
A major contribution to the 30 by 30 goal
Papua New Guinea links the Western Manus plan with the global goal of protecting 30 percent of land and marine areas by 2030. This goal, known as 30 by 30, is part of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which states adopted under the Convention on Biological Diversity. According to that framework, by 2030 states should ensure the effective conservation and management of at least 30 percent of terrestrial, inland water, coastal and marine areas, especially those important for biodiversity and ecosystem functions. In that sense, the large marine area in Western Manus would not be only a national project, but part of a wider international effort to halt the loss of nature.
Available regional data show how large such a step would be. The Pacific Islands Protected Area Portal states that, according to its methodology, only a small share of Papua New Guinea’s marine area is protected, while the data may differ from official national assessments because of different databases, boundaries and methodologies. That is precisely why the announcement of an area of almost 200,000 square kilometers carries great significance: if confirmed in legal acts and entered into international databases of protected areas, it would change the scale of marine protection in the country. But surface area alone is not enough. For the 30 by 30 goal, the effectiveness of management, monitoring, financing, community involvement and clear implementation rules are crucial.
Protection of reefs, fisheries and large marine species
The planned Western Manus area is described in connection with the protection of sharks, whales, coral reefs and fisheries. Sharks and rays are particularly vulnerable groups because many species grow slowly, reach sexual maturity late and have a small number of offspring. When their populations are depleted, recovery can take decades. Protected areas that reduce extraction and bycatch can help preserve such species, especially if they include important feeding grounds, migration routes or breeding areas. In the case of whales and other marine mammals, the value of large marine areas also lies in preserving space for movement, reducing the pressure of human activities and better understanding their seasonal patterns.
Coral reefs in the western Pacific have exceptional ecological value because they provide habitat for fish, invertebrates and other organisms, while also protecting coasts from waves and erosion. WCS Papua New Guinea states that in New Ireland and Manus provinces it works with local communities and authorities on monitoring and sustainable management of coral reefs, including because of economically important resources such as sea cucumbers, lobsters, trochus shells and giant clams. This shows that reef protection is not separate from everyday life, but directly affects food availability, income and the resilience of coastal settlements. In that sense, Western Manus could serve as a large protective core, but only if it is coordinated with smaller local zones and fishing rules in surrounding waters.
Implementation challenges in a vast marine space
The greatest challenge for any large marine protected area is not only its declaration, but actual implementation. Almost 200,000 square kilometers of sea require monitoring, clear boundaries, a system of permits for permitted activities, sanctions for violations and cooperation between state institutions, provincial authorities, local communities and international partners. In remote island areas, monitoring is logistically expensive, and patrolling the sea depends on vessels, fuel, communication systems and trained personnel. Effectiveness will therefore probably depend on a combination of traditional community monitoring, satellite tracking of larger vessels, scientific monitoring and clear political support.
The second challenge is aligning protection with the needs of fishers and coastal villages. If the area is completely closed to extraction, it is necessary to clearly determine who is affected, whether there are transitional measures and how to ensure that long-term benefits are understandable to communities. The experience from the Lovongai and Murat areas shows that long consultations can be crucial for accepting protection. In Western Manus, the scale is even larger, so the process will also have to be extremely careful. According to available information, it is still not clear when the area could be formally declared, which legal instrument would regulate it and what the final regime of permitted and prohibited activities would be.
A signal for the Pacific and international ocean policy
The announcement of Western Manus comes at a time when small island and coastal states are positioning themselves more strongly in international ocean policy. In its speech at the Third United Nations Ocean Conference in 2025, Papua New Guinea emphasized support for sustainable ocean management and announced the signing of the Agreement on Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction, known as BBNJ. According to the United Nations, that agreement is aimed at the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction. Although Western Manus belongs to Papua New Guinea’s national marine space, the political message is similar: ocean protection is increasingly seen as a matter of international responsibility, climate resilience and fair resource management.
For the Coral Triangle, such moves are especially important because the region simultaneously has exceptional biodiversity and a high dependence of the population on marine resources. The Coral Triangle Initiative states that its cooperation is focused on food security, climate change and biodiversity conservation, which are precisely the issues that intersect in the example of Manus. If Papua New Guinea succeeds in establishing a large area of strict protection while maintaining the support of local communities, Western Manus could become one of the most important Pacific examples of linking science, traditional management and international nature conservation goals. Until then, the key questions will remain the legal status, the boundaries of the area, the financing of monitoring and the way in which the benefits of protection will be returned to the communities that live with that sea every day.
Sources:
- Wildlife Conservation Society Papua New Guinea – announcement on the declaration of the Lovongai and Murat marine protected areas and the process of involving local communities (link)
- Post-Courier – report on the Pristine Seas expedition and findings on reefs in Western Manus and the Harengan area (link)
- Post-Courier – report on marine biodiversity in the Hermit Islands area as part of the expedition in Papua New Guinea (link)
- Coral Triangle Initiative on Coral Reefs, Fisheries and Food Security – description of regional cooperation in the Coral Triangle and the context of the area around Manus (link)
- WWF – overview of the Coral Triangle as a global center of marine biodiversity (link)
- National Geographic Education – explanation of the term no-take zone and activities prohibited in such areas (link)
- Convention on Biological Diversity – Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the goal of protecting 30 percent of areas by 2030 (link)
- Pacific Islands Protected Area Portal – data on Papua New Guinea protected areas and a note on methodological differences (link)
- United Nations, Third Ocean Conference – statement by Papua New Guinea on sustainable ocean management and the BBNJ agreement (link)
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