Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)

Our marine and coastal work

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) protect a wide range of habitats, species, geology and undersea landforms in Scottish waters.

Scotland’s network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) now consists of 247 sites, with 233 for conservation purposes, covering 37% of our seas. This means Scotland is providing a significant contribution to the Global Ocean Alliance ambition and the expected Convention on Biodiversity target of reaching 30% global ocean protection by 2030 – often known as 30by30

The development of the MPA network has been progressed between Marine Scotland, Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC), Natural England, Historic Environment Scotland, Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) and NatureScot, working with a wide range of marine stakeholders. We provide guidance and technical advice to Marine Scotland and others on MPAs as part of our role.

Questions about MPA data, boundaries and management? Please discover more about individual sites through our SiteLink pages.

Find out more by reading information about the Scottish MPA network. Explore the background to the Nature Conservation MPA selections and the marine SPA selections. Details of our role and the types of advice we provide on MPAs in general are on the MPA advice page and you can also learn about our Survey and Monitoring work. 

Update on MPAs

• The Scottish Government has committed to consulting on management measures for fishing activity for inshore Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) where measures are required and are not already in place. This consultation will also include measures for Priority Marine Features (PMFs) most sensitive to bottom-contacting mobile fishing gear outside the MPA network. Find out more on our dedicated management measures webpage.
• The latest report to Parliament on the Scottish Marine Protected Areas network was published in 2024 showing the progress made towards objectives for the sites, and other insightful information.