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World's largest marine reserve created around the Chagos Islands
On 1 April 2010, the UK created the world’s largest Marine Reserve, covering some quarter of a million square miles of ocean around the Chagos Archipelago. If you were one of the thousands of people who emailed then-foreign secretary David Miliband to press for this reserve, thank you for your support.
This is an area 26 times the size of Wales, or bigger than the whole of France if you think more continentally. So this is a huge step forward.
And the Chagos’ seas are worth protecting. They hold over 200 species of coral, the world’s largest coral atoll, and a stunning array of biodiversity ranging from clownfish to whale sharks, and coconut crabs to sea turtles. It ranks up there with the Great Barrier Reef , the Galapagos and the Coral Triangle> as a globally-important biodiversity-blessed patch of sea.
But much more of the world's oceans need protection before we can begin to reverse the decline in marine species, populations and habitats, and there's plenty more you can do to help.
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