DOI: 10.5061/dryad.0p2ngf2f1
title: Global Marine Protected Areas: Proposal, announcement, and implementation

description: Most large-scale conservation policies are anticipated or announced in
 advance. This risks the possibility of preemptive resource extraction
 before the conservation intervention goes into force. We use a
 high-resolution dataset of satellite-based fishing activity to show that
 anticipation of an impending no-take marine reserve undermines the policy
 by triggering an unintended race-to-fish. We study one of the world’s
 largest marine reserves, the Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA), and
 find that fishers more than doubled their fishing effort once this area
 was earmarked for eventual protected status. The additional fishing effort
 resulted in an impoverished starting point for PIPA equivalent to 1.5 y of
 banned fishing. Extrapolating this behavior globally, we estimate that if
 other marine reserve announcements were to trigger similar preemptive
 fishing, this could temporarily increase the share of overextracted
 fisheries from 65% to 72%. Our findings have implications for general
 conservation efforts as well as the methods that scientists use to monitor
 and evaluate policy efficacy.
description: We constructed a global dataset of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)
 that records three key policy milestones: proposal date, public
 announcement date, and formal implementation date. To identify these
 dates, we reviewed multiple sources, including the <em>MPA Atlas
 (March 2025 release)</em>, government legislation, official
 announcements, management plans, and secondary reports. For each MPA, we
 extracted the earliest available proposal record, the first public or
 official announcement, and the date of legal or regulatory implementation.
 Where possible, original source documents are cited directly within the
 dataset to allow verification. Each MPA entry also
 includes site names, designations, site and zone identifiers, and
 governance classifications to facilitate cross-comparison and policy
 analysis. To standardize the dataset, dates were formatted in ISO 8601
 (YYYY-MM-DD). Cases where dates could not be verified were marked as
 “N/A”. This structured approach enables the temporal
 sequencing of MPA policy stages across the globe. The dataset is designed
 to support empirical analysis of policy anticipation effects, particularly
 the Blue Paradox, as well as broader evaluations of conservation timing,
 governance, and effectiveness.
description: # Global Marine Protected Areas: Proposal, announcement, and
 implementation Dataset DOI:
 [10.5061/dryad.0p2ngf2f1](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.0p2ngf2f1) ##
 Description of the data and file structure This dataset compiles key
 temporal milestones for Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) across the globe. It
 records the initial proposal, public announcement, and formal
 implementation dates of MPAs, alongside source documentation for each
 date. These data were collected to support research on the *Blue Paradox*
 effect, where anticipation of protection may lead to preemptive increases
 in resource extraction. The dataset includes MPA-level metadata such as
 site names, designations, and governance identifiers to allow
 cross-referencing and standardization. ### Files and variables
 FINAL_Jahat_Garcia_-_MPA_DATA_SET_-_mpa_atlas_export.csv Each row
 corresponds to a unique MPA or MPA zone. The dataset contains the
 following fields: 1. Data Source: The primary reference or database from
 which the entry was derived (e.g., MPA Atlas, government legislation, NGO
 reports). 2. Name: The official name of the Marine Protected Area. 3.
 Designation: The legal or policy designation of the MPA (e.g., National
 Park, No-Take Reserve). 4. Site ID: Unique identifier for the MPA site,
 consistent with international databases when possible. 5. Zone ID: Unique
 identifier for the specific zone within an MPA, if applicable. 6. Initial
 Proposal Date (YYYY-MM-DD): The earliest documented date when the MPA was
 formally proposed. 7. Initial Proposal Date Source: The reference
 documenting the proposal date (e.g., management plan, government
 announcement, archival report). 8. Announcement Date (YYYY-MM-DD): The
 date when the MPA’s designation was first officially or publicly
 announced. 9. Announcement Date Source: The reference documenting the
 announcement date. 10. Implementation Date (YYYY-MM-DD): The date when the
 MPA’s legal protections or regulations formally entered into force. 11.
 Implementation Date Source: The reference documenting the implementation
 date (e.g., legislation, decree, gazette notice). ## Code/software The
 dataset is provided in .csv format, which can be opened and analyzed using
 free or open-source software such as LibreOffice Calc (version 7.6 or
 later) or Google Sheets. ## Access information This dataset was derived
 and compiled from publicly available sources on Marine Protected Areas
 (MPAs). The primary source is: MPA Atlas (Marine Protection Atlas, March
 2025 release). Accessible at: [https://mpatlas.org](https://mpatlas.org).
 Additional sources include government legislation, official gazettes,
 management plans, and NGO reports, each cited within the dataset under the
 respective “Source” columns (Proposal, Announcement, Implementation).
 These documents are publicly accessible through national or regional
 government websites or archival portals where available.