With World Oceans Day coming up on June 8, policymakers and researchers will be thinking about the state of the ocean and efforts to protect marine environments.

There is no shortage of global objectives and targets to drive those conversations. The United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-30) has advanced 10 challenges to drive action. One of them aims to protect and restore ecosystems and biodiversity.

Another UN effort, the Kunming-Montréal Global Biodiversity Framework, aims to ensure at least 30 per cent of marine and coastal areas (as well as terrestrial and inland waters) are effectively conserved and managed by 2030.

Such targets — whether for funding, conservation or to measure economic impacts — are a crucial element of ongoing efforts to support ocean conservation. But a focus on targets can hide what matters most in any ocean conservation effort — the people who steward those resources and ecosystems.

Six years ago, as the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework was being drafted, we argued that communities must be at the heart of efforts to conserve wildlife, plants and ecosystems,........

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