The ocean contains unique biodiversity, provides valuable food resources and is a major sink for anthropogenic carbon. Marine protected areas (MPAs) are an effective tool for restoring ocean biodiversity and ecosystem services^1,2, but at present only 2.7% of the ocean is highly protected³. This low level of ocean protection is due largely to conflicts with fisheries and other extractive uses. To address this issue, here we developed a conservation planning framework to prioritize highly protected MPAs in places that would result in multiple benefits today and in the future. We find that a substantial increase in ocean protection could have triple benefits, by protecting biodiversity, boosting the yield of fisheries and securing marine carbon stocks that are at risk from human activities. Our results show that most coastal nations contain priority areas that can contribute substantially to achieving these three objectives of biodiversity protection, food provision and carbon storage. A globally coordinated effort could be nearly twice as efficient as uncoordinated, national-level conservation planning. Our flexible prioritization framework could help to inform both national marine spatial plans⁴ and global targets for marine conservation, food security and climate action.

海洋拥有独特的生物多样性，提供宝贵的食物资源，并且是人为碳的主要汇。海洋保护区 (MPA) 是恢复海洋生物多样性和生态系统服务的有效工具^1,2，但目前只有 2.7% 的海洋受到高度保护³。海洋保护水平低主要是由于与渔业和其他采掘用途的冲突。为了解决这个问题，我们制定了一个保护规划框架，优先考虑在那些能够在今天和未来带来多重好处的地方建立高度保护的海洋保护区。我们发现，大幅加强海洋保护可以带来三重好处：保护生物多样性、提高渔业产量以及确保因人类活动而面临风险的海洋碳储量。我们的研究结果表明，大多数沿海国家都拥有可以为实现生物多样性保护、粮食供应和碳储存这三个目标做出重大贡献的优先领域。全球协调的努力可能比不协调的国家级保护规划的效率高出近两倍。我们灵活的优先顺序框架可以帮助为国家海洋空间计划⁴和海洋保护、粮食安全和气候行动的全球目标提供信息。