Protected Places Ranked by Area, From 14,000 Square Kilometres in the Congo to 16 Acres in Puerto Rico

The Okapi Wildlife Reserve covers about 14,000 square kilometres of the Ituri Forest in the northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, roughly one fifth of that forest. It was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996 for its okapis and wider biodiversity, and as of 2026 armed conflict in the surrounding region seriously threatens it. It is the largest stop on this path.

Gashaka Gumti was created in 1991 from two earlier game reserves and covers about 6,402 square kilometres, making it Nigeria's largest national park. It runs from northern savanna to the southern mountains that include Chappal Waddi, the country's highest peak, and it still contains enclaves where Fulani pastoralists farm and graze livestock.

Chile created this park by supreme decree on March 8, 2023, and it covers about 57,107 hectares, or roughly 571 square kilometres, between Copiapo and Vallenar. It protects the driest desert on Earth during its flowering, a mass bloom of more than 200 wildflower species after El Nino linked rains.

Ruby Lake in northeastern Nevada was established in 1938 under President Franklin D. Roosevelt and holds about 39,928 acres of wetland, close to 162 square kilometres. Spring-fed marshes and shallow ponds now fill the bed of an ancient lake, giving habitat to hundreds of native and migratory bird and mammal species.

The lake itself covers only about 2.04 square kilometres, but this path ranks it by the protected ground around it: Natura 2000 site number 18, an 8,748 hectare area (about 87 square kilometres) in Jutland, Denmark, that also takes in the Rold Skov forest and the Lindenborg river valley. The lake sits in a glacial kettle hole and is a bird sanctuary under the EU Habitats Directive.

Belle Isle State Park opened in 1993 on a peninsula of the Rappahannock River in Lancaster County, Virginia, and covers 892 acres. The Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation manages its tidewater marshes and woodlands, and it is designated an International Dark Sky park.

Pook's Hill is a 300 acre private forest reserve and bird sanctuary in Cayo District, Belize, about 12 miles west of Belmopan. It is listed with the Belize Association of Private Protected Areas and also protects the ruins of a Maya residential complex dated to roughly 830 to 950 AD.

El Rabanal is the smallest stop, 16 acres of secondary forest in Cidra, Puerto Rico. It was set up in 2002 as a conservation easement by a local farmers association and the Puerto Rico Conservation Trust, and it shelters nesting habitat for the Puerto Rican plain pigeon among 21 recorded bird species.