Protected Areas

The legally designated conservation sites this atlas documents, grouped into seven sub categories by the IUCN Protected Area Management Category each site fits, from strict nature reserves and wilderness areas through national parks and multi-use conservation landscapes. This band is where a reader browses geography by land set aside for conservation rather than settlement, from a single small nature reserve to a vast multi-country biosphere reserve, distinct from the ordinary landform or body of water a protected area may sit on or around.