Working together since 2011, The Pew Charitable Trusts and Dona Bertarelli later formalized their partnership, Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy, with the shared goal of supporting the creation of the first generation of ecologically significant, large, and effective marine protected areas (MPAs) around the world. The partnership also seeks to establish connections between MPAs to conserve areas and corridors that marine life relies on for breeding and migration and to help communities strengthen connections to the ecosystems they depend on.
Together, Pew and Dona Bertarelli have helped to establish MPAs covering over 16 million square kilometers (6 million square miles) of ocean across more than 20 sites. Of this total, nearly 12 million square kilometers (5 million square miles) are highly and fully protected areas—representing more than 90% of all such designations worldwide. This was achieved by working with communities, governments, Indigenous groups, scientists, and other partners.
Notable achievements include the designation of 1.1 million square kilometers (425,000 square miles) of highly and fully protected ocean in French Polynesia, the 720,000-square-kilometer (278,000-square-mile) Rapa Nui Multiple Use Marine Coastal Protected Area, almost half a million square kilometers (193,000 square miles) of full protections in South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, and the completion of the largest debt conversion for ocean conservation to date for the Galápagos Islands.
