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This WikiProject aims primarily to provide information on all Protected Areas (abbreviated on this page as PAs) in the world.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) defines a protected area as: "An area of land and/or sea especially dedicated to the protection and maintenance of biological diversity, and of natural and associated cultural resources, and managed through legal or other effective means."
National parks are probably the best-known PAs, but there are many other categories. Protected areas are those which a higher level governmental entity manages, maintains and or oversees directly. For instance in the United States, this would include primarily federal and to a lesser degree, state managed areas, but rarely those managed by a county or city.
I'm mainly interested in whether the US has the most amount of park space for it's citizens to enjoy.
So I can see how far down the list we are, and how we compare to places
like Germany and Spain and Canada (which doesn't seem to have any
protected lands compared to us, at least if you're looking at Google Maps)
I've been looking for moths, all I can fin is % and only the top 10 or something.
Not %! Area. Though if you have a good, comprehensive % list I can work it out myself.
I'm guessing the search can be summed up in gross number of acres(?) of federally and state protected lands.
Anyways, you all seem very smart, do any of you have a link to a 'List of Countries by Area of Protected Lands'?
Protection of the environment is a luxury for the rich. Before 1900, the USA protected nothing. Most countries still place their priority on feeding their population, than protecting their environments.
So obviously, the amount of land that is protected is proportional to how rich the country is.
For what it's worth, here is the list of countries according to how much land is officailly designated as protected:
However, that is meaningless, because most poor countries have no resources to dedicate to enforcement, and their protected designations are just window dressing, for which they probably get some international funding. For example, Nicaragua has protected areas, but Costa Ricans freely cross the border and poach wild animals and timber of Nicaragua, with complete impunity because Nicaragua has nobody watching. However, Costa Rica diligently enforces their protected areas.
The USA is fairly high on the list, but mainly because most of the land we protect is in Alaska, and without Alaska, we'd be below average. We also have a lot of state and national forest land which is theoretically "protected", but big timber companies are in there clearcutting "our" forests for their profit.
It's nearly impossible to calculate how much land in the US is protected, because the federal government has it fragmented under ten different designations, and gods know now many by each state, county and city. There is the Bureau of Land Management, that protects land for the use of off-road vehicles to race around destroying the pristine land and generating noise pollution that can be heard for miles, and this is called "protected".
The same shrill hypocrisy is probably happening in nearly all countries, to varying degrees, which make the idea of comparing countries almost laughable. Bottom line is still the same. Land is protected in countries that are rich enough to make token marginal areas off limits, and hire enforcement rangers to police it. Without that wealth, protection is Zero.
Actually Germany and Spain are very small countries, so they can't have that much protected area in total. Relatively, they have a certain amount of parks and protection areas, but compared to lets say the Grand Canyon National Park they are still not very large. Canada has a very low density in their population, draw a line 300km from the U.S. border and you will hardly find very much people on the northern side of this line. I guess there is no need to protect wildlife and environment, when there is more wildlife and environment than anything else in a region. However, they also have state parks like Algonquin etc.
The only lands in the U.S. that should be considered 'protected' are the Federal and State 'Wilderness' areas, the National Parks, and various private and local trusts and preserves.
In other words, most of the big green swaths on the map, such as National Forest, BLM, and other federal lands are far from 'protected'.
Brazil has 76 National Parks, and hundreds of other protected areas of other categories.
The largest National Park in Brazil is the Tumucumaque National Park, with an area of 38,874 square kilometres (15,010 sq mi), making it the world's largest tropical forest national park, and larger than Belgium.
The Jaú National Park is located in the Amazonas state in Brazil, covering an area greater than 5.6 million acres (23,000 square kilometers).
Pico da Neblina National Park has 22,200 square kilometers (8,600 sq mi).
Juruena National Park has an area of 19,000 square kilometers.
How about Canada? Most of the area is sparsely populated.
Beautiful National and Provincial Parks abound in Alberta & C. Pay a small annual fee and you camp in them but bring your dogs along to warn you of bears. Use google.
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