At the Our Ocean Conference in Mombasa, Kenya this June, São Tomé and Príncipe's Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Rural Development, Nilton de Sousa Pontes, announced the official designation of the country's first two marine protected areas: Santana, a 7.4-square-kilometer site on the eastern coast of São Tomé Island, and Ilhéu das Rolas–Malanza–Jalé, a larger 55.8-square-kilometer site along the island's southern coast. Together they cover just over 63 square kilometers, with roughly 9 square kilometers set aside as fully protected no-take zones.
From a promise to two functioning marine protected areas in under a year.
The announcement moves fast by MPA standards. São Tomé and Príncipe only committed to building a network of eight marine protected areas at the 2025 UN Ocean Conference — under a year before Santana and Ilhéu das Rolas–Malanza–Jalé were actually designated. Six more sites, all in Príncipe's coastal waters, are slated for designation later in 2026, which would bring the full network to its planned 93 square kilometers.
From Designation to Management
Designation isn't the finish line here — it's what unlocks the next stage. With the two sites officially in place, the government and its partners, including the conservation NGO Fauna & Flora and the implementing partner Fundação Príncipe, can now write management plans and stand up local co-management committees, with the goal of having both sites fully operational by early 2027. João Pessoa, the country's Director of Fisheries, was blunt about what that's meant to prevent: "The MPAs are not being created as paper parks, but as part of a broader effort," he said, tying the designations to real management structures rather than a designation announcement that fades once the press cycle ends.
Two sites and 63 square kilometers is a modest opening chapter for a country that still has six more MPAs to go before its network is complete — and designation on paper is only as good as the enforcement and management plans that follow it. But for a nation working toward the global target of protecting 30% of the ocean by 2030, going from a commitment to two functioning designations in well under a year is a real, trackable step, not just a pledge.
Image credit: São Tomé island coastline