The importance of marine protected areas for biodiversity protection is discussed in this contribution. The global ocean ecosystem is negatively affected by various drivers. e.g. overfishing, marine and coastal hbitat degradation, destruction and loss, cimate change, acidifcation, contaminaton with various elements or substances, plastics and noise pollution, eutrophication, incuding sea-bed mining or invasive alien species impact, often acting synergistically.
Effective networks of marine protected areas can play serious role in protection of the marine biodiversity.