--->Geography question: List of countries with most protected lands?

[bbrubaker]

By protected I mean in the following sense:

 

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) defines a protected area as:

 

"An area of land and/or sea especially dedicated to the protection

and maintenance of biological diversity, and of natural and associated

cultural resources, and managed through legal or other effective means."

 

National parks are probably the best-known PAs, but there are many other categories. Protected areas are those which a higher level governmental entity manages, maintains and or oversees directly. For instance in the United States, this would include primarily federal and to a lesser degree, state managed areas, but rarely those managed by a county or city.

 

 

I'm mainly interested in whether the US has the more park space for it's citizens to enjoy...than Canada and most of Western Europe.

But, the more information the better...if anyone has a link to a list or some data to share. I'll be forever grateful.

 

 

I've been looking for months, all I can find is % and only the top 10 countries or something.

(of which, US is not included, fyi)

So, I'm interested in a comprehensive type listing for area. If at all possible.

 

 

 

Or whatever... your opinions and conjecture would be cool, too.

Thanks.

Edited December 24, 2011 by bbrubaker

[JustinW]

http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=2201 Although it is 2003 when this article was written, it should provide you with quite a bit of information. I was a little surprised to see that only a little over 11% of the Earth was protected. I had always imagined it would be a greater figure.