Sustainable development entails balancing the environment, economy, and equity. This balance usually proves elusive: too often, the economy seems to trump the other two pillars of sustainable development. As we face the triple crises of climate change, pollution, and biodiversity collapse, the need to balance competing issues and interests has never been more urgent. Justin Alger takes on this challenge in Conserving the Oceans: The Politics of Large Marine Protected Areas. He questions the assumption that industrial interests always win. Instead, he offers a nuanced account of when and how industry influences environmental policies, for better or worse.

Alger’s focus is on ocean conservation. The ocean—a singular term is preferred in conservation circles to emphasize its global, rather than regional, nature—is under threat. Climate change and pollution continue to endanger the health of marine ecosystems, and biodiversity suffers, particularly fish stocks. It is an ideal case to study the interactions between economic interests and conservation because marine protected areas (MPAs) involve setting aside increasingly vast swaths of the ocean, rendering the area untouchable for industrial activity. Because of the growing threats to the ocean and environmental nongovernmental organizations’ (ENGOs) advocacy efforts, the scale of ocean conservation has grown rapidly. Alger concentrates on this shift toward very large MPAs by studying the increasing prominence of the policy and how it varies across countries.

For Alger, this shift toward large MPAs represents a new norm in global ocean governance. He defines large MPAs as larger than 200,000 km², pelagic (meaning open ocean), and usually no-take (meaning extractive commercial activities are banned or limited to a specific area). In chapter 2, he traces the diffusion and adoption of the global norm, achieved through the strategies of a few ENGOs to convince states to adopt large MPAs. ENGOs are often norm entrepreneurs. Alger’s account is unique in a few respects. It is unusual for a small number of ENGOs to successfully devise and diffuse a new global norm. That accomplishment usually requires a network of NGOs, often working in the context of an international organization. Further, global conservation NGOs sometimes struggle to establish their authority and influence at national and local levels (see Cristina Balboa, 2018, The Paradox of Scale: How NGOs Build, Maintain, and Lose Authority in Environmental Governance). Alger’s account of large MPAs shows that the Pew Center, National Geographic Society, and Conservation International were successful; by working at national levels, they managed to convince countries to establish large MPAs. Starting as an idea, large MPAs are now a source of “friendly competition” among states to establish and protect ever-larger parts of the ocean.

The rest of the book examines the second part of Alger’s inquiry: why the global norm has manifested differently across countries. That is, why did countries adopt different types of large MPAs? Here is where industry influence takes center stage in the analysis. Alger puts forward a strategic actor framework to explain how the state chooses which stakeholders to align with, and, in turn, designs the MPA rules to accommodate that choice. It is through this process of lobbying, contestation, and coalition building that the global norm becomes tailored, or localized, to fit each country’s circumstances.

Alger identifies the state, NGOs, local communities, and industry as the key stakeholders in the framework. Three of the four theoretical expectations that Alger sets out revolve around the role of industry. Industry type (extractive or non-extractive) and salience (their demonstrated activity levels or stake in the MPA area) are largely determinative for the state’s ultimate decisions. When extractive industry wins, it is likely to lead to weak or ineffective policies, whereas coalitions with non-extractive industries, ENGOs, or local communities can produce more environmentally friendly results. The final expectation is about the state: how veto points matter, and, importantly, that policy makers can strategically work around opposition by, for example, repurposing existing legislation to create the large MPA.

These theoretical expectations are then explored through three cases: the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National monument in the United States, the Coral Sea Marine Park in Australia, and the Palau National Marine Sanctuary in Palau. These cases represent useful variation on the variables of interest (not to mention enviable choices for fieldwork). They have different domestic arrangements regarding extractive and non-extractive industries and other key stakeholders. They also importantly represent different state capacities to implement the large MPAs. Alger carefully process traces how these theoretical expectations unfold in each case, paying close attention to the details and mechanisms that tie his framework together.

Individually, the framework’s expectations and findings may not initially seem groundbreaking. We expect extractive industries to have more sway because they could threaten to fish in another country’s waters and pay taxes to that country. Perhaps an interesting comparison could be drawn with mining companies, because their extractive activities are tied firmly to land, which reduces their mobility and threat of exit. This book’s contribution lies in putting these theoretical expectations together into one framework and exploring how each operates in unique cases. It contributes to our understanding of ocean conservation and how to protect two-thirds of the planet more effectively, a vital issue that is sometimes overlooked amid the vast amount of work on climate change.

The book also contributes to the study of environmental norms or even norms more broadly. It explores a new environmental norm from start to finish: its inception, diffusion, adoption, and localization. For this reason, it may be of interest to those interested in a range of environmental issues and in international relations more generally. It also adds to our understanding of norm localization by bringing the lens of political economy to explanations of why governments realize the same norm differently. With the book’s focus on industrial interests, Alger explains why, ultimately, his analysis “speaks volumes about the hegemonic power of neoliberalism as a model for environmentalism that even a norm about closing off millions of square kilometers of ocean can be consistent with it” (p. 177).

By exploring possible solutions to such larger questions, the conclusion is a valuable ending to the book, stepping back from the close theoretical and empirical work to consider the broader context. The equity pillar of sustainable development comes through most strongly in the conclusion and could be an interesting area for future work: On balance, how does norm localization affect or empower Indigenous Peoples or local communities? Alger briefly provides examples of how some large MPAs have included local communities, such as the Easter Island Marine Park in Chile and Tuvaijuttuq MPA in Canada’s Arctic. He warns, however, that the large MPA norm is not an equity norm that rectifies environmental injustices. What an environmentally just MPA might look like could help realize a vision of sustainable development for the ocean.