A marine protected area (MPA) is a protected area that includes primarily marine environment and biodiversity.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) defines a protected area as: "A clearly defined geographical space, recognised, dedicated and managed, through legal or other effective means, to achieve the long-term conservation of nature with associated ecosystem services and cultural values.
"[1][2]This definition is intended to make it more difficult to claim MPA status for regions where exploitation of marine resources occurs.
If there is no defined long-term goal for conservation and ecological recovery and extraction of marine resources occurs, a region is not considered a marine protected area.
Some were later consolidated with adjacent MPAs and may not still be generally referred to by the original name.