The
World Database on Protected Areas
The World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA) is the largest assembly of data on the world's terrestrial and marine protected areas, containing more than 260,000 protected areas as of August 2020, with records covering 245 countries and territorie ...
(WDPA) is compiled and managed by the
World Conservation Monitoring Centre
The UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) is a collaboration centre of UN Environment Programme, based in Cambridge in the United Kingdom. UNEP-WCMC has been part of UN Environment Programme since 2000, and has ...
, an executive agency of the
United Nations Environment Programme
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is responsible for coordinating responses to environmental issues within the United Nations system. It was established by Maurice Strong, its first director, after the United Nations Conference on ...
. It uses the
IUCN and
CBD definitions of
protected area
Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the ena ...
s to determine whether a site should be included in the WDPA. The extend to which each area and the resources within are protected can vary significantly.
The largest protected areas – those exceeding an area of 250,000 square kilometres – are listed below in order of total area protected.
All are
marine protected area
Marine protected areas (MPA) are protected areas of seas, oceans, estuaries or in the US, the Great Lakes. These marine areas can come in many forms ranging from wildlife refuges to research facilities. MPAs restrict human activity for a cons ...
s except for
Northeast Greenland National Park – which is mostly terrestrial but also has a marine component – and three entirely terrestrial
biosphere reserve
A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or o ...
s in
Brazil. Protected areas with multiple coterminous or overlapping designations (e.g. Northeast Greenland National Park and the corresponding
Biosphere Reserve
A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or o ...
) are listed only once.
Currently,
Marae Moana
Marae Moana is a multiple-use marine protected area created on 13 July 2017, when the Parliament of the Cook Islands passed a bill creating the largest multiple-use marine protected area in the world at the time of its passage. Marae Moana cover ...
is the largest protected area in the world with a total area larger than
Mexico (1,964,375 km
2).
Largest protected areas of the world
References
{{Reflist, 30em
Largest
Large means of great size.
Large may also refer to:
Mathematics
* Arbitrarily large, a phrase in mathematics
* Large cardinal, a property of certain transfinite numbers
* Large category, a category with a proper class of objects and morphisms (or ...
Geography-related lists of superlatives
Protected areas