This section presents a statistical summary of the level of protection of Argentina’s coastal and marine environments. It details the categories of marine protected areas, the surface type, and the different regions of the Argentine Sea, including inland waters, territorial sea, and the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The figures are derived from our own calculations based on geospatial information from the database.
Coastal and marine protected areas
Coastal areas
Coastal-marine areas
Marine areas
of protected coastal area
of marine protected area
of surface area of the protected Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)
of the surface of the Argentine Continental Sea protected
of the protected Continental EEZ
Inland Waters and Protected Continental Territorial Seas
NOTE 1: We define the Argentine Continental Sea as the marine sector adjacent to the Argentine continental territory, and encompassing the Inland Waters, the Territorial Sea and the Argentine Continental Exclusive Economic Zone, whose limits are published in the Naval Hydrographic Service (http://www.hidro.gov.ar/Download/LE.asp). The baseline data and points are established in the Maritime Spaces Law (Law No. 23,968) and updated to the World Geodetic System WGS84 according to Resolution RS-2019-15960606-APN-MRE of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Worship.
NOTE 2: The Argentine Antarctic Sector, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands, and the surrounding maritime areas, which are an integral part of the national territory, have not been included within the total area of the Argentine marine space solely for the purpose of calculating the percentage of protection of coastal and marine areas, because they are subject to the exclusive application of the rules of the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, approved by Law 22. 584, as well as the norms of the Antarctic Treaty, approved by law 15.802, and its Protocol on Environmental Protection, approved by law 24.216.
NOTE 3: The surface area of the coastal and marine protected areas was obtained from calculations made using a Geographic Information System (GIS) with the polygons of the maps of each area presented on this website. An Albers Conic Equivalent Conic projection was used to ensure the accuracy of the area calculation.
NOTE 4: For the calculation of the percentages of protected areas, official information on the surface of the Inland Waters, the Territorial Sea and the Argentine Continental Exclusive Economic Zone provided by the Naval Hydrographic Service (June 2019) was used.