Marine protected areas covered 1.4% of Bangladesh’s territorial waters in 2013 and 8.6% in 2025. Over the same period, protected land fell from 4.7% to 4.2% of the land area.
1.4% → 8.6%
Share of territorial waters under marine protection, 2013 to 2025.
The marine gain came in steps: 5.4% in 2014, 8.0% in 2023 and 8.6% in 2025. Land protection moved the other way, holding at 4.6% from 2014 to 2023 before dropping to 4.2% in 2024. The data do not say why; changes in recorded boundaries or in which sites meet the database’s criteria may play a part, so the fall should be read as a change in the official record rather than proof of land being lost.
Either way, protected land is now about half the 8.6% recorded at sea. For policy, the numbers point to two questions: whether protected-area status on land is being kept up, and whether newly designated marine sites are managed with enforcement and fisher livelihoods in mind, since designation alone does not conserve anything.
Caveat: figures are as reported in the Protected Planet database and cover only designated areas, not how well they are managed.
Source: UNEP-WCMC and IUCN, Protected Planet (WDPA), via World Bank WDI (ER.MRN.PTMR.ZS, ER.LND.PTLD.ZS).