Analysing Data on Protected Areas
International goals
The OECD reports indicators on terrestrial, marine and coastal protected areas for countries across the world.
It applies a harmonised methodology to data from the World Database on Protected Areas.
Ensure and enable that by 2030 at least 30 per cent of terrestrial, inland water, and of coastal and marine areas, especially areas of particular importance for biodiversity and ecosystem functions and services, are effectively conserved and managed [...]
Target 3 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework
By 2020, conserve at least 10 per cent of coastal and marine areas, consistent with national and international law and based on best available scientific information.
Sustainable development goal 14.5
Take urgent and significant action to reduce the degradation of natural habitats, halt the loss of biodiversity and, by 2020, protect and prevent the extinction of threatened species.
Sustainable development goal 15.5
The High Seas Treaty sets up a legal mechanism to designate marine protected areas on the high seas.
UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)
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Methodology
THE WORLD DATABASE ON PROTECTED AREAS
The OECD indicators are derived from the World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA), a geospatial database of terrestrial and marine protected areas.
The WDPA is managed by the United Nations Environment Programme and the World Conservation Monitoring
MANAGEMENT CATEGORIES
The WDPA includes information on management objectives (IUCN categories
I-VI):
z Ia Strict natural reserve
z Ib Wilderness area
z II National park
AREA CALCULATION
OECD analysis avoids double-counting overlapping protected areas. Where areas with different IUCN categories overlap the category that comes first in the list above is attributed to the overlapping areas. To assign protected areas to countries and to the terrestrial, marine and coastal domains, a harmonised boundary dataset is created by using (i) country data received from
DATA ACCESS AND COVERAGE
The OECD indicator is available via the data portal data-explorer.oecd.org and includes absolute (km2) and relative (as share of land/ EEZ area) protected area extents from 1950 to the present day, disaggregated by:
Centre (UNEP-WCMC) with support from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and its World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA).
The WDPA is updated monthly. It contains information on more than 280 000 protected areas.
z III Natural monument
z IV Habitat/Species management area
z V Protected Landscape/Seascape
z VI Protected area with sustainable use of natural resources
z No IUCN category and regional or international designations.
National Statistical Offices and (ii) FAO Global Administrative Unit Layer (2015) for terrestrial boundaries. For marine boundaries, the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) is created by using the VLIZ EEZ, version 11 (2019), while coastline buffers of 1 and 10 km are used to measure coastal protected areas.
See Mackie, A. et al. (2017).
z Country
z Terrestrial/marine/coastal domain
z Management objective.
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Terrestrial protected areas
Pristine wilderness or lived-in landscapes? This chart gives an overview of how protected areas are used in different countries.
Terrestrial protected areas are shown as a share of the total land area.
In countries such as Poland, Germany, Slovenia and the United Kingdom, the majority of protected areas are nationally designated as IUCN category V, which is primarily concerned with landscape conservation, whereas, Chile, Colombia, Finland, Sweden and the United States mostly use protected areas to protect wilderness areas, national parks and other highly natural areas.
Ia - Strict natural reserve
Ib - Wilderness area
II - National park
III - Natural monument
IV - Habitat/Species management area
V, VI or no category provided
(includes international and regional designations)
Additional area recorded as points
GBF target
4 0 10 20 30 40 50 60
India China South Switzerland* Indonesia Canada United Finland Ireland Mexico Sweden Belgium Denmark OECD Colombia Korea Lithuania Norway Latvia Estonia Australia Chile Iceland Italy Czech Republic* Hungary* Portugal Netherlands Israel EU27 Costa United Kingdom Spain France Austria* Brazil Japan New Zealand Greece Slovak Republic* Germany Poland Slovenia Luxembourg*
Türkiye
% land area
Slovenia
Poland
Germany
Republic*
Greece
Zealand
Japan
Brazil
Austria*
France
Spain
Kingdom
Costa Rica
EU27
Israel
Netherlands
Portugal
Hungary*
Italy Republic*
Iceland
Chile
Australia
Estonia
Latvia
Norway
Lithuania
Korea
Colombia
OECD
Denmark
Belgium
Sweden
Mexico
Ireland
Finland
United States
Canada
Indonesia
Switzerland*
South Africa
China
India
Türkiye
Luxembourg* 0
Marine protected areas
Marine protected areas are shown as a share of each country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
The figures presented here only summarise protection of areas within national jurisdictions (EEZ). Globally, about 7% of all oceans are protected (UNEP-WCMC).
Most OECD members with marine areas have established marine protected area networks, however, stricter marine reserves and no-take zones (marine ‘sanctuaries’) are rarely used.
Designated with IUCN Management Objectives I-III which generally preclude commercial fishing and other extractive industries
All other designations
Landlocked country *
Source: OECD calculations based on publicly accessible data in January 2023 version of the WDPA. %
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10 20 30 40 50 60
EEZ area
GBF target
Historical patterns
Between 1970 and 2020, new terrestrial protected areas were designated at a consistently high rate, but this rate has declined since 2020. Designation of marine protected areas was slow until 2000. Since then, they have increased by more than 9 million square kilometers, which is approximately the size of Canada.
Designation of protected areas in OECD and G20 countries
Marine protected area
No IUCN category
VI - Protected area with sustainable use of natural resources
V - Protected landscape or seascape
IV - Habitat/Species management area
III - Natural monument
II - National park
Ib - W ilderness area
Ia - Strict natural reserve
Historical data can give an overview of individual countries’ approaches. Brazil, for example, designated most protected areas in the past two decades, favoring mixed-use management designations. The United States recently expanded its marine protected areas, albeit there has been little progress on new marine protected area since 2006.
Source: OECD calculations based on publicly accessible data in January 2023 version of the WDPA.
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0 5 10 15 20 25 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020 P r o t e c t e d a r e a c o v e r a g e ( i n c l . p o i n t s , % ) 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020 P r o t e c t e d a r e a c o v e r a g e ( i n c l . p o i n t s , % ) Designation of protected areas in Brazil Designation of protected areas
the United
0 5 10 15 20 25 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020 P r o t e c t e d a r e a c o v e r a g e ( i n c l . p o i n t s , % )
in
States
Interpretation and limitations
The World Database on Protected Areas is the most comprehensive global database on protected areas. However, it is neither complete nor perfectly accurate, depending on country submissions.
z The indicator does not reflect the effectiveness of these areas, nor whether they are suitably located. Studies of the biodiversity outcomes of protected areas show mixed results.
z IUCN management categories indicate the management objectives, which activities are likely to be permitted in the area and the likely naturalness of the ecosystems. However, they are not a normative hierarchy – one type of objective should not be considered better or more suitable than another outside of the local context.
z Protected areas are occasionally recorded as points which increases the risk that protected areas will be double-counted or attributed to the wrong domain.
Further reading
For further reading consult:
z Results may differ from summaries published elsewhere because of differences in the definitions of terrestrial and marine areas, the country baselines used, the definition of a country (e.g. which overseas territories are included), areal calculation technique used, how protected areas recorded as points are treated, time lag between national or regional data and updates to the WDPA, different treatment of a particular type of protected area designation and whether that meets the definition of a protected area. The WDPA also includes data from non-governmental data providers which may not be included in national databases.
z OECD (2023), “Biological resources and biodiversity”, in Environment at a Glance Indicators, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/7afe55f8-en
z OECD (2023), “Sustainable ocean economy”, in Environment at a Glance Indicators, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/1f798474-en
z Mackie, A. et al. (2017), “Indicators on Terrestrial and Marine Protected Areas: Methodology and Results for OECD and G20 countries”, OECD Environment Working Papers, No. 126, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/e0796071-en.
z Recent OECD Environmental Performance Reviews.
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The OECD reports a detailed account of countries’ terrestrial, marine and coastal protected areas.
It applies a harmonised methodology to data from the World Database on Protected Areas.
Browse the data at data-explorer.oecd.org covering over 150 countries with historical series since 1950.
CONTACTS
Mikaël J. A. Maes, Data Scientist: mikael.maes@oecd.org
Ivan Haščič, Senior Economist: ivan.hascic@oecd.org
Nathalie Girouard, Head of Division, Environmental Performance and Information: nathalie.girouard@oecd.org
All images from Shutterstock.com
http://oe.cd/env-data
