In 2022, Colombia achieved the IUCN target of 30% marine protected areas, by expanding the Malpelo Fauna and Flora Sanctuary, a small area off the Pacific coast. Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site, Malpelo is particularly renowned for its incredible shark populations.

400 kilometers off the coast of Colombia, Malpelo appears at first glance to be a barren, inhospitable rock. Uninhabited, this small island is the only emerged peak of a long ocean ridge: the Malpelo Ridge. Beneath the surface, a succession of seamounts, caves, tunnels and steep walls plunge to depths of almost 4,000 meters. 

Despite its modest size (3.5 km2), the island is a veritable gathering point for marine macrofauna and home to one of the world's largest concentrations of sharks. Silky sharks, hammerhead sharks, whale sharks... These species, threatened by overfishing, seem to have found an ideal habitat on Malpelo. 

Headed by biologist Sandra Bessudo, the Malpelo Foundation ensures compliance with the fishing ban and the preservation of the area, which has been protected since 1995. It also oversees the monitoring of sharks and their movements via ultrasonic and satellite tags placed on the animals. Thanks to these systems, in recent years scientists have been able to observe a regular migration of hammerhead sharks between Malpelo and the mainland, where females give birth to their young. 

This close monitoring of migrations has led the governments of Colombia, Ecuador, Costa Rica and Panama to jointly build the Eastern Tropical Pacific Marine Corridor, a network of marine protected areas modelled on the region's migratory routes. This is an unprecedented collaboration to protect biodiversity.