CZM is in a unique position to identify the most significant natural coastal areas in the state and to take the lead in creating initiatives for preserving and protecting these resources.

CZM managed the coastal Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) program until 1993. ACECs are places in Massachusetts that receive special recognition because of the quality, uniqueness, and significance of their natural and cultural resources. These areas are identified and nominated at the community level and are reviewed and designated by the state's Secretary of Environmental Affairs. The Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) now administers the statewide ACEC program, and CZM coordinates closely with DCR to prioritize overlapping program responsibilities in coastal ACECs. CZM provides technical assistance, state environmental review, and federal consistency review for all coastal ACECs and any future coastal ACEC nominations, in order to protect, preserve, restore, and enhance the resources of coastal ACECs.

Permanent protection of significant coastal land is important to CZM. Through the Coastal Estuarine Land Conservation Program (CELCP), CZM helps guide federal funding to protect important coastal and estuarine areas that have significant conservation, recreation, ecological, historical, or aesthetic values, or that are threatened by conversion from their natural or recreational state to other uses, giving priority to lands that can be effectively managed and protected and that have significant ecological value.

Through Federal Consistency Review and technical assistance, CZM pays close attention to barrier beaches, salt marshes, and other important wetland resource areas because they buffer the coast from storms, waves, and flooding.

For high hazard coastal areas (such as barrier beaches) that have been repeatedly battered by coastal storms, CZM provides technical information and policy development to local officials to help them manage growth in these hazard-prone areas.

CZM also played significant roles in designating Stellwagen Bank as a National Marine Sanctuary, designating the Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, and developing the State Ocean Sanctuaries Program.