AbstractWith marine biodiversity declining globally at accelerating rates, maximising the effectiveness of conservation has become a key goal for local, national and international regulators. Marine protected areas (MPAs) have been widely advocated for conserving and managing marine biodiversity yet, despite extensive research, their benefits for conserving non‐target species and wider ecosystem functions remain unclear. Here, we demonstrate thatMPAs can increase the resilience of coral reef communities to natural disturbances, including coral bleaching, coral diseases,Acanthaster plancioutbreaks and storms. Using a 20‐year time series from Australia's Great Barrier Reef, we show that withinMPAs, (1) reef community composition was 21–38% more stable; (2) the magnitude of disturbance impacts was 30% lower and (3) subsequent recovery was 20% faster that in adjacent unprotected habitats. Our results demonstrate thatMPAs can increase the resilience of marine communities to natural disturbance possibly through herbivory, trophic cascades and portfolio effects.