Reimaanlok Community-Led Marine Protection — Bikar & Bokak Atolls Sanctuary (Marshall Islands)

Reimaanlok is the Marshall Islands' national framework for community-based conservation-area planning, developed in the mid-2000s to embed customary reef and land tenure and traditional knowledge into an eight-step process for designing, legislating and monitoring protected areas.

In 2023, National Geographic Pristine Seas scientists conducted 452 dives (~643 hours underwater) around the uninhabited Bikar and Bokak atolls, recording the highest coral cover and reef-fish biomass documented anywhere in the central and western Pacific, the Marshall Islands' largest green sea turtle nesting colony, and healthy shark populations.

These findings directly informed the government's designation, on 28 January 2025, of an 18,500 sq mi (48,000 km²) fully protected marine sanctuary around the two atolls, administered by MIMRA under the Reimaanlok framework.

Because the atolls are remote and uninhabited, benefits are expected chiefly through spillover to surrounding fisheries and long-term reef resilience rather than direct local livelihoods; quantified socio-economic outcomes had not been published as of the sources reviewed.