Protected Wetlands, Deltas and Waters, From Lakes to Open Sea

Begin inland in Croatia, where a chain of sixteen terraced lakes is joined by waterfalls and was protected as a national park in 1949. The colors come from mineral deposits and light, and the lakes are still being reshaped by travertine deposition. The park was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979.

Lake Srebarna and its wetlands lie in northeastern Bulgaria, about two kilometers south of the Danube. The reserve sits on the Via Pontica, a major bird migration route between Europe and Africa, which is why it gives nesting and migratory habitat to many endangered bird species.

At the mouth of the Guadalquivir River in southern Spain, this 543 square kilometre park, established in 1969, is a stopover and wintering site for hundreds of thousands of migratory waterfowl. It also shelters the critically endangered Iberian lynx and carries World Heritage, Ramsar and Biosphere Reserve designations.

The Rhône delta in southern France is protected here as a regional park rather than a strict reserve. Designated in 1970, it is managed to sustain rice farming, salt production and cattle ranching alongside conservation, and it is known for white Camargue horses and a large breeding population of greater flamingos.

Where the Volga meets the northwestern Caspian Sea, this Russian zapovednik, a strict nature reserve, protects islands, reed marsh and willow floodplain. It has held Ramsar wetland status since 1975 and joined the Biosphere Reserve network in 1984, and its waters hold roughly fifty fish species including the beluga sturgeon.

The path now reaches the tidal coast. The Wadden Sea is the largest unbroken system of intertidal sand and mud flats in the world, shared by the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark. The Dutch and German parts were inscribed in 2009 and Denmark joined in 2014, with the three countries coordinating through the Common Wadden Sea Secretariat.

On the west coast of Mauritania, between Nouakchott and Nouadhibou, this World Heritage park is one of the world's most important sites for migratory and breeding birds, with flamingo, pelican and tern nesting on sand banks and islands such as Tidra. The surrounding waters are among the richest fishing grounds in West Africa.

Established in 1986 on the Caribbean coast of the Yucatán Peninsula in Quintana Roo, Mexico, the reserve runs from tropical forest and wetland through mangrove and marsh to barrier reef. Its Yucatec Maya name means where the sky is born, and it is home to jaguar and manatee.

Off Western Australia, the park protects the waters along Ningaloo Reef, one of the longest fringing coral reefs in the world. Established in 1987, it is zoned to allow regulated fishing and tourism beside sanctuary zones, and it is best known for the whale sharks that gather there each year to feed. The reef was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 2011.

The path ends in open ocean, about a thousand kilometers from mainland Ecuador. The Galápagos Marine Reserve surrounds one of the most unusual ecosystems on Earth and holds World Heritage status. It is described as the largest marine reserve in a developing country, a reminder that protection can cover water as well as land.