Protected Places in Order of Founding, From Ordesa in 1918 to Myoko-Togakushi Renzan in 2015

A national park has existed in the Ordesa Valley of the Spanish Pyrenees since 1918, which makes this the oldest founding on the path. In 1982 the protected area was enlarged to take in the whole surrounding region, bringing it to 156.08 square kilometers, and it is managed as an IUCN Category II park.

Founded in 1944, this 6,900 square kilometer park in New South Wales is named for Mount Kosciuszko, the highest peak on the Australian mainland. It also holds Cabramurra, the highest town in Australia, and its alpine climate draws skiers and bushwalkers.

Designated on November 20, 1946, Ise-Shima covers about 555 square kilometers of Mie Prefecture on Honshu. Its ria coastline wraps Ago Bay and Matoya Bay, and the park contains the Ise Jingu shrine complex and the paired Meoto Iwa rocks.

Designated on May 16, 1949 in southwestern Hokkaido, this park is named for the caldera lakes Shikotsu and Toya. It includes Mount Yotei, Mount Usu and the lava dome Showa-shinzan, which rose out of farmland in eruptions beginning in 1944.

The Zwin has protected a former tidal inlet on the Belgian and Dutch North Sea coast since 1952, the smallest area on the path at about 1.58 square kilometers. In the Middle Ages the inlet connected the sea to the ports of Sluis and Bruges, and the reserve now keeps its wetland habitat.

The atlas records Gorongosa as founded in 1960, at the southern end of the Great African Rift Valley in central Mozambique. It covers more than 4,000 square kilometers of valley floor and plateau, watered by rivers that start on Mount Gorongosa, which rises to 1,863 meters.

Proclaimed in 1963 on the eastern side of the Okavango Delta in Botswana and named for Chief Moremi of the BaTawana. It was made a game reserve rather than a national park, a distinction that let the BaSarwa people who had lived there remain.

Designated on July 15, 1963, this park follows the Sea of Japan coast of Tottori, Hyogo and Kyoto prefectures. Sea cliffs, sea caves and rock reefs of a ria coast sit beside the Tottori Sand Dunes, and the whole park lies within the San'in Kaigan UNESCO Global Geopark recognized in 2010.

Founded in 1978 in northern Sichuan, Jiuzhaigou is a long north to south valley of about 720 square kilometers. UNESCO inscribed it as a World Heritage Site in 1992 and a World Biosphere Reserve in 1997, and it is classed as IUCN Category V, a protected landscape.

Established in 1987 off Belize near Ambergris Caye and Caye Caulker, Hol Chan protects about 18 square kilometers of coral reef, seagrass bed and mangrove forest. It is run by the Hol Chan Marine Reserve Trust Fund Committee, which replaced an informal advisory committee in 1994.

Set up in 1992 at the mouth of the Congo River, this is the only marine park of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, also called the Muanda Marine Reserve. It is a Ramsar wetland of about 768 square kilometers whose mangroves shelter endangered manatees.

Established in 1997 on the Red Sea coast of Jordan, this small reserve covers about 2.8 square kilometers. It protects seagrass, fish and corals, and records many waterbirds including gulls, terns and skuas.

Officially established on June 8, 2014 and opened to the public that October, this Taiwanese park covers about 358 square kilometers of the southern Penghu Islands. It takes in Dongjiyu, Xijiyu, Dongyupingyu and Xiyupingyu with smaller islets and the waters around them.

The newest founding on the path, designated on March 27, 2015 from land that had been part of Joshinetsu-Kogen National Park. It spans Niigata and Nagano prefectures at about 398 square kilometers and holds Mount Hiuchi, Mount Myoko, the active volcano Niigata-Yakeyama and Lake Nojiri.