The Ocean Is Waiting: A Message for the International Day for Biological Diversity

Every year on May 22nd, the International Day for Biological Diversity reminds us that the natural world isn’t a backdrop—it is essential to life on Earth. Biological Diversity is Nature. Nature is the fish that feeds billions. The coastlines that absorb storms. The reefs that draw divers and create the tourism that sustains communities. When nature thrives, people thrive. When it doesn’t, we all feel it.

We are six years into one of the most ambitious conservation targets the world has ever set. Under the global 30×30 agreement, nations have committed to protecting 30% of our land and ocean by 2030. Yet today, only 10% of the ocean is under any form of protection, and just 3% is fully protected. To close that gap, we need approximately 190,000 new coastal marine protected areas by the end of this decade—around 85 every single day.

30×30 is a global target. But it will only be met through bridging local action with national ambition. 

That’s what the Revive Our Ocean Collective is built on. We interviewed managers of 30 highly protected marine areas across 10 countries to understand what effective, equitable marine protection looks like in practice. From strong community involvement and creative funding models to science-based management and government support, those lessons now guide every partnership we build. The insight that runs through all of them is the same: when local people have the power, the tools, and the knowledge to protect their own waters for their own long-term economic benefit and ongoing stewardship, extraordinary things happen.

The Revive Our Ocean Collective brings together leading organizations from Greece, Mexico, Portugal, Turkey, the Philippines, Indonesia, and the UK—working hand-in-hand with coastal communities, policymakers, and businesses to turn the 30×30 goal into our lived reality.

We know that marine protection safeguards biodiversity and strengthens economies. Spain’s Medes Islands—a single square kilometer of fully protected ocean — is home to thriving marine life and generates €16 million in tourism revenue every year, with better fishing around it. That’s the power of a healthy ocean acting as natural infrastructure: more fish, stronger fisheries, and more resilient coastal communities with stronger economies and climate resilience. Protection and prosperity, it turns out, are not in competition. They are the same investment.

On this International Day for Biological Diversity, the 30×30 target isn’t just a number on a global agreement—it’s a coastline in Greece, a reef in the Philippines, a community in Mexico deciding that their waters are worth protecting. That’s where ambitious targets become real. And that’s where hope lives: not in declarations, but in the scientists, conservationists, local leaders, and young people working to create a future where nature and people, as well as local economies and livelihoods that depend on nature, thrive. Biological diversity is the building block of life, with nature as the foundation for humanity, and we celebrate this day! 

Ready to dive into ocean action to protect marine biological diversity? Start here!