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: 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. z Country z Terrestrial/marine/coastal domain z Management objective.

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.

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).