VANUATU, Fiji and Papua New Guinea have committed to creating an interconnected marine protected area covering at least six million square kilometres under the Melanesian Ocean Corridor of Reserves (MOCOR) Declaration and Framework 2026–2030, in what officials say will become the world’s largest transboundary marine protected area.
The agreement, signed this month by the three Pacific Island nations, establishes a network of national and jointly managed protected areas to strengthen ocean stewardship across Melanesia.
Papua New Guinea also announced the Western Manus National Marine Sanctuary during the inaugural Melanesian Ocean Summit in Port Moresby, a 214,000-square-kilometre marine protected area that officials said is the largest in the country’s history and would cover about nine per cent of its exclusive economic zone.
The Western Manus site is intended to support Papua New Guinea’s pledge under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework to protect at least 30 per cent of the world’s oceans by 2030 through marine protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures.
“Papua New Guinea is one of the most biodiverse places on the planet,” said Jelta Wong, Minister for Fisheries and Marine Resources of PNG.
“Establishing the Western Manus Marine Protected Area will allow us to preserve and protect our ecological legacy and, at the same time, ensure that our ocean continues to provide people with what we need – food and a source of income.”
Papua New Guinea sits within the Coral Triangle, a marine region spanning parts of Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Malaysia, Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste, and is home to more than 75 per cent of the world’s coral species.
The MOCOR framework is designed to cut illegal fishing in the region by half, while also supporting marine research, protecting biodiversity-rich areas and helping coastal communities that depend on the ocean for food and income.
Director General of the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), Sefanaia Nawadra, said: “Pacific leadership and cooperation were clearly demonstrated this month, as Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu collectively affirmed their commitment to the protection and stewardship of our ocean.”
“We congratulate them for this investment in the shared responsibility of our ocean for a Blue Pacific Continent. SPREP stands ready to support Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu as they implement the MOCOR Declaration and the Western Manus Protected Area.”
The inaugural Melanesian Ocean Summit was held from May 11–14, and Papua New Guinea said it will now begin the national process for legal designation of the Western Manus protected area.
