PROTECTED AREA

Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological and/or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the enabling laws of each country or the regulations of the international organisations involved. The term "protected area" also includes Marine Protected Areas, the boundaries of which will include some area of ocean, and Transboundary Protected Areas that overlap multiple countries which remove the borders inside the area for conservation and economic purposes. There are over 161,000 protected areas in the world (as of October 2010) with more added daily, representing between 10 and 15 percent of the world's land surface area. By contrast, only 1.17% of the world's oceans is included in the world's ~6,800 Marine Protected Areas.

World map with total percentage of each country under protection.

Protected areas are essential for biodiversity conservation, often providing habitat and protection from hunting for threatened and endangered species. Protection helps maintain ecological processes that cannot survive in most intensely managed landscapes and seascapes.

Definition

Generally, protected areas are understood to be those in which human occupation or at least the exploitation of resources is limited. The definition that has been widely accepted across regional and global frameworks has been provided by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in its categorisation guidelines for protected areas. The definition is as follows:

"A clearly defined geographical space, recognized, dedicated and managed, through legal or other effective means, to achieve the long-term conservation of nature with associated ecosystem services and cultural values."

A poster of Yellowstone from 1938.

Protection of Natural Resources

Protected areas are designated with the objective of conserving biodiversity and providing an indicator for that conservation's progress, but the extent to which they defend resources and ecosystem dynamics from degradation are slightly more complex. Protected areas will usually encompass several other zones that have been deemed important for particular conservation uses, such as Important Bird Areas (IBA) and Endemic Bird Areas (EBA), Centres of Plant Diversity (CBD), Indigenous and Community Conserved Areas (ICCA), Alliance for Zero Extinction Sites (AZE) and Key Biodiversity Areas (KBA) among others. Likewise, a protected area or an entire network of protected areas may lie within a larger geographic zone that is recognised as a terrestrial or marine ecoregions (see, Global 200), or a crisis ecoregions for example. As a result, Protected Areas can encompass a broad range of governance types. Indeed, governance of protected areas has emerged a critical factor in their success.

Subsequently, the range of natural resources that any one protected area may guard is vast. Many will be allocated primarily for species conservation whether it be flora or fauna or the relationship between them, but protected areas are similarly important for conserving sites of (indigenous) cultural importance and considerable reserves of natural resources such as;

• Carbon Stocks: Carbon emissions from deforestation account for an estimated 20% of global carbon emissions, so in protecting the worlds carbon stocks greenhouse gas emissions are reduced and longterm land cover change is prevented, which is an effective strategy in the struggle against global warming. Of all global terrestrial carbon stock, 15.2% is contained within protected areas. Protected areas in South America hold 27% of the world's carbon stock, which is the highest percentage of any country in both absolute terms and as a proportion of the total stock.
• Rainforests: 18.8% of the world's forest is covered by protected areas and sixteen of the twenty forest types have 10% or more protected area coverage. Of the 670 ecoregions with forest cover, 54% have 10% or more of their forest cover protected under IUCN Categories I – VI.
• Mountains: Nationally designated protected areas cover 14.3% of the world’s mountain areas, and these mountainous protected areas made up 32.5% of the world’s total terrestrial protected area coverage in 2009. Mountain protected area coverage has increased globally by 21% since 1990 and out of the 198 countries with mountain areas, 43.9% still have less than 10% of their mountain areas protected.

Annual updates on each of these analyses are made in order to make comparisons to the Millennium Development Goals and several other fields of analysis are expected to be introduced in the monitoring of protected areas management effectiveness, such as freshwater and marine or coastal studies which are currently underway, and islands and drylands which are currently in planning.

IUCN Protected Area Management Categories

Through its World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA), the IUCN has developed six Protected Area Management Categories that define protected areas according to their management objectives, which are internationally recognised by various national governments and the United Nations. The categories provide international standards for defining protected areas and encourage conservation planning according to their management aims.

Strict Nature reserve Belianske Tatras in Slovakia.

IUCN Protected Area Management Categories:

• Category Ia — Strict Nature Reserve
• Category Ib — Wilderness Area
• Category II — National Park
• Category III — Natural Monument or Feature
• Category IV — Habitat/Species Management Area
• Category V — Protected Landscape/Seascape
• Category VI – Protected Area with sustainable use of natural resources

History

Protected areas are cultural artifacts, and their story is entwined with that of human civilization. Protecting places and resources is by no means a modern concept, whether it be indigenous communities guarding sacred sites or the convention of European hunting reserves. Over 2000 years ago, royal decrees in India protected certain areas. In Europe, rich and powerful people protected hunting grounds for a thousand years. Moreover, the idea of protection of special places is universal: for example, it occurs among the communities in the Pacific ("tapu" areas) and in parts of Africa (sacred groves). However, the modern protected areas movement had nineteenth-century origins in North America,  Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Other countries were quick to follow suit. While the idea of protected areas spread around the world in the twentieth century, the driving force was different in different regions. Thus, in North America, protected areas were about safeguarding dramatic and sublime scenery; in Africa, the concern was with game parks; in Europe, landscape protection was more common.

Black Opal Spring in Yellowstone National Park in the United States. Yellowstone, the world's second official protected area (after Mongolia's Bogd Khan Mountain), was declared a protected area in 1872, and it encompasses areas which are classified as both a National Park (Category II) and a Habitat Management Area (Category IV).

Initially, protected areas were recognised on a national scale, differing from country to country until 1933, when an effort to reach an international consensus on the standards and terminology of protected areas took place at the International Conference for the Protection of Fauna and Flora in London. At the 1962 First World Conference on National Parks in Seattle the effect the Industrial Revolution had had on the world's natural environment was acknowledged, and the need to preserve it for future generations was established.

Since then, it has been an international commitment on behalf of both governments and non-government organisations to maintain the networks that hold regular revisions for the succinct categorisations that have been developed to regulate and record protected areas. In 1972, the Stockholm Declaration of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment endorsed the protection of representative examples of all major ecosystem types as a fundamental requirement of national conservation programmes. This has become a core principle of conservation biology and has remained so in recent resolutions - including the World Charter for Nature in 1982, the Rio Declaration at the Earth Summit in 1992, and the Johannesburg Declaration 2002.

Recently, the importance of protected areas has been brought to the fore at the threat of human-induced global warming and the understanding of the necessity to consume natural resources in a sustainable manner. The spectrum of benefits and values of protected areas is recognised not only ecologically, but culturally through further development in the arena of Indigenous and Community Conserved Areas (ICCAs). International programmes for the protection of representative ecosystems remain relatively progressive (considering the environmental challenges of globalisation with respect to terrestrial environments), with less advances in marine and freshwater biomes.

Challenges

How to manage areas protected for conservation brings up a range of challenges - whether it be regarding the local population, specific ecosystems or the design of the reserve itself - and because of the many unpredicatable elements in ecology issues, each protected area requires a case-specific set of guidelines.

Schweizerischer National Park in the Swiss Alps is a Strict Nature Reserve (Category Ia).

Enforcing protected area boundaries is a costly and labour-heavy endeavour, particularly if the allocation of a new protected region places new restrictions on the use of resources by the native people which may lead to their subsequent displacement. This has troubled relationships between conservationists and rural communities in many protected regions and is often why many Wildlife Reserves and National Parks face the human threat of poaching for the illegal bushmeat or trophy trades, which are resorted to as an alternative form of substinence.

There is increasing pressure to take proper account of human needs when setting up protected areas and these sometimes have to be "traded off" against conservation needs. Whereas in the past governments often made decisions about protected areas and informed local people afterwards, today the emphasis is shifting towards greater discussions with stakeholders and joint decisions about how such lands should be set aside and managed. Such negotiations are never easy but usually produce stronger and longer-lasting results for both conservation and people.

The Jaldapara National Park, in West Bengal, India is a Habitat Management Area (Category IV).

In some countries, protected areas can be assigned without the infrastructure and networking needed to substitute consumable resources and subtantiatively protect the area from development or misuse. The soliciting of protected areas may require regulation to the level of meeting demands for food, feed, livestock and fuel, and the legal enforcement of not only the protected area itself but also 'buffer zones' surrounding it, which may help to resist destabilisation.

Effectiveness

One of the main concerns regarding protected areas on land and sea is their effectiveness at preventing the ongoing loss of biodiversity. There are multiple case studies indicating the positive effects of protected areas on terrestrial and marine species. However, those cases do not represent the majority of protected areas. Several limitations that may preclude their success include: their small size and large isolation to each other (both of these factors influence the maintenance of species), their limited role at preventing the many factors affecting biodiversity (e.g. climate change, invasive species, pollution), their large cost and their increasing conflict with human demands for nature's goods and services.

By Area
European Union

Natura 2000 is a network of protected areas established by the European Union across all Member States. It is made up of Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) and Special Protection Areas (SPAs) designated respectively under the Habitats Directive and Birds Directive. 787,767 km² (304,159 sq mi) are designated as terrestrial sites and 251,564 km²(97,129 sq mi) as marine sites. Overall, 18 percent of the EU land mass is designated.

Nicaragua

O Parks, Wildlife, and Recreation is a Private Protected Area also known as a 'Private Reserve' predominantly managed for biodiversity conservation, protected without formal government recognition and is owned and stewarded by the O corporation International. O parks plays a particularly important role in conserving critical biodiversity in a section of the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor, known as the Paso del Istmo, located along the 12-mile-wide isthmus between Lake Nicaragua and the Pacific Ocean.

United States

As of 31 January 2008, according to the United Nations Environment Programme, the United States had a total of 6,770 terrestrial nationally designated (federal) protected areas. These protected areas cover 2,607,131 km²(1,006,619 sq mi), or 27.08 percent of the land area of the United States. This is also one-tenth of the protected land area of the world.

Prohibited activities and safety instructions at a state park in Oregon.

References

1. ^ Protected Planet.
2. ^ Soutullo, A. 2010. Extent of the Global Network of Terrestrial Protected Areas. Conservation Biology 24(2):362-363. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2010.01465.x/abstract.
3. ^ United Nations MDG Report 2010.
4. ^ ^a b c d Mora C, Sale P (2011). "Ongoing global biodiversity loss and the need to move beyond protected areas: A review of the technical and practical shortcoming of protected areas on land and sea" (PDF). Marine Ecology Progress Series 434: 251–266. doi:10.3354/meps09214.
5. ^ IUCN (2010) Global Ocean Protection: Present Status and Future Possibilities.
6. ^ Dudley, N. (ed.) Guidelines for Appling Protected Areas Management Categories (IUCN: Switzerland, 2008)
7. ^ UNEP-WCMC About Protected Areas, Dudley, N. (ed.) Guidelines for Appling Protected Areas Management Categories (IUCN: Switzerland, 2008) p.8-9.
8. ^ A-Z of Areas of Biodiversity Importance.
9. ^ Campbell, A., Miles. L., Lysenko, I., Hughes, A., Gibbs, H. Carbon Storage in Protected Areas: Technical Report (UNEP-World Conservation Monitoring Centre, 2008)
10. ^ Coad L., Burgess, N.D., Bomhard, B., and Besancon, C. Progress on the Convention on Biological Diversity’s 2010 and 2012 Targets for Protected Area Coverage "Looking to the Future of the CBD Programme of Work on Protected Areas" (Cambridge: UNEP-WCMC, 2009)

External Links

• World Database on Protected Areas
• ProtectedPlanet.net
• United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Center, Protected Areas Programme.
• IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas.
• IUCN Global Protected Area Programme.
• 2010 Biodiversity Indicators Partnership Indicator Factsheet: Management Effectiveness of Protected Areas.
• A-Z of Areas of Biodiversity Importance
• Brazilian Amazon Protected areas - Instituto Socioambiental.

- Wikipedia 

FLORA

Flora is the plant life occurring in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring or indigenous-native plant life. The corresponding term for animal life is fauna. Flora, fauna and other forms of life such as fungi are collectively referred to as biota. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms gut flora or skin flora.

Plant species diversity

Etymology

"Flora" comes from the Latin name of Flora, the goddess of plants, flowers, and fertility in Roman mythology.

Flora Classification

Plants are grouped into floras based on region (floristic regions), period, special environment, or climate. Regions can be geographically distinct habitats like mountain vs. flatland. Floras can mean plant life of a historic era as in fossil flora. Lastly, floras may be subdivided by special environments:

• Native flora. The native and indigenous flora of an area.
• Agricultural and horticultural flora (garden flora). The plants that are deliberately grown by humans.
• Weed flora. Traditionally this classification was applied to plants regarded as undesirable, and studied in efforts to control or eradicate them. Today the designation is less often used as a classification of plant life, since it includes three different types of plants: weedy species, invasive species (that may or may not be weedy), and native and introduced non-weedy species that are agriculturally undesirable. Many native plants previously considered weeds have been shown to be beneficial or even necessary to various ecosystems.

Simplified schematic of an island's flora - all its plant species, highlighted in boxes.

Documentation of Floras

The flora of a particular area or time period can be documented in a publication also known as a "flora" (often capitalized as "Flora" to distinguish the two meanings when they might be confused). Floras may require specialist botanical knowledge to use with any effectiveness. Traditionally they are books, but some are now published on CD-ROM or websites.

Floristic regions in Europe according to Wolfgang Frey and Rainer Lösch

It is said that the Flora Sinensis by the Polish Jesuit Michał Boym was the first book that used the name "Flora" in this meaning, a book covering the plant world of a region. However, despite its title it covered not only plants, but also some animals of the region.

A published flora often contains diagnostic keys. Often these are dichotomous keys, which require the user to repeatedly examine a plant, and decide which one of two alternatives given best applies to the plant.

Flora on Wikipedia

The botanical continents of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, used for classifying floras geographically.

Wikipedia has the following mainly flora categories:

• Flora by continent
• Flora by country
• Flora by region

References

1. ^ "Merriam Webster Online Dictionary".
2. ^ Clifford E. Starliper, Rita Villella, Patricia Morrison, and Jay Mathais. "Sampling the bacterial flora of freshwater mussels" (PDF).
3. ^ John, D.M.; Whitton, B.A.; Brook, A.J. (2002). The Freshwater Algal Flora of the British Isles: An Identification Guid to Freshwater and Terrestrial Algae. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521770514.
4. ^ Flora Sinensis (access to the facsimile of the book, its French translation, and an article about it)

- Wikipedia 

NATURE RESERVE

A nature reserve (natural reserve, bioreserve, (natural/nature) preserve or (national/nature) conserve) is a protected area of importance for wildlife, flora, fauna or features of geological or other special interest, which is reserved and managed for conservation and to provide special opportunities for study or research. Nature reserves may be designated by government institutions in some countries, or by private landowners, such as charities and research institutions, regardless of nationality. Nature reserves fall into different IUCN categories depending on the level of protection afforded by local laws.

History

Cultural practices that roughly equate to the establishment and maintenance of reserved areas for animals date back to antiquity, with King Devanampiya Tissa of Sri Lanka establishing one of the world's earliest wildlife sanctuaries in the 3rd century BC. Early reservations often had a religious underpinning, such as the 'evil forest' areas of West Africa which were forbidden to humans, who were threatened with spiritual attack if they went there. Sacred areas taboo from human entry to fishing and hunting are known by many ancient cultures worldwide.

Charles Waterton established the first nature reserve in 1821.

The world's first modern nature reserve was established in 1821 by the naturalist and explorer Charles Waterton around his estate in Walton Hall, West Yorkshire. He spent £9000 on the construction of a 3 mile long, 9 ft tall wall to enclose his park from poachers. He tried to encourage birdlife by planting trees and hollowing out trunks for owls to nest in.

He also invented artificial nest boxes to house starlings, jackdaws and sand martins and unsuccessfully attempted to introduce little owls from Italy. Waterton allowed local people access to his reserve and was described by David Attenborough as “one of the first people anywhere to recognise not only that the natural world was of great importance but that it needed protection as humanity made more and more demands on it”.

Drachenfels (Siebengebirge) was protected as the first state-designated nature reserve in modern-day Germany; the site was bought by the Prussian State in 1836 to protect it from further quarrying.

Drachenfels (Siebengebirge)

The first major nature reserve was Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, United States, followed by the Royal National Park near Sydney, Australia and the Barguzin Nature Reserve of ImperialRussia, the first of zapovedniks set up by a federal government entirely for the scientific study of nature.

Around TheWorld
Australia

In Australia, a nature reserve is the title of a type of protected area used in the jurisdictions of the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Tasmania and Western Australia. The term “nature reserve” is defined by state and territory statutes rather than by a single national statute. As of 2014, 1767 out of a total of 10339 protected areas listed within the Australian National Reserve System were “nature reserves.”

Brazil

In Brazil, nature reserves are classified as Biological Reserves by the National System of Conservation Units. Its main objectives are preserving fauna and flora and other natural attributes, excluding direct human interference.

The biological reserves in Amazônia Legal are in Abufari, Culuene, Guapore, Gurupi,  Jaru,  Lago de Piratuba,  Maicuru, Morro dos Seis Lagos, Nascentes da Serra do Cachimbo, Parazinho,  Rio Ouro Preto, Rio Trombetas, Tapirapé, Traçadal, and Uatumã.

Egypt

There are 29 nature reserves in Egypt which cover 12% of Egyptian land. Those nature reserves were built according to the laws no. 102/1983 and 4/1994 for protection of the Egyptian nature reserve. Egypt announced a plan from to build 40 nature reserves from 1997 to 2017, to help protect the natural resources and the culture and history of those areas. The largest nature reserve in Egypt is Gebel Elba (35,600 square kilometres (13,700 sq mi)) in the southeast, on the Red Sea coast.

European Union
Denmark

Denmark has three national parks and several nature reserves, some of them inside the national park areas. The largest single reserve is Hanstholm Nature Reserve, which covers 40 km² (9,900 acres) and is part of Thy National Park.

A bridged stone river in Bistrishko Branishte an early Bulgarian nature reserve established in 1934.

Estonia

In Estonia there are 5 national parks, more than 100 nature reserves and around 130 landscape protection areas. The largest nature reserve in Estonia is Alam-Pedja Nature Reserve, which covers 342 km² (85,000 acres).

Germany
In 1995 Germany had 5,314 nature reserves (German:  Naturschutzgebiete) covering 6,845 km² (2,643 sq mi), the largest total areas being in Bavaria with 1,416 km²(547 sq mi) and Lower Saxony with 1,275 km² (492 sq mi).

Tarvasjõgi at Põhja-Kõrvemaa Nature Reserve in Estonia.

Hungary

In Hungary there are 10 national Parks, more than 15 nature reserves and more than 250 protected areas. Hortobágy National Park is the largest continuous natural grassland in Europe and the oldest national park in Hungary. It is situated on the eastern part of Hungary, on the plain of the Alföld. It was established in 1972. There are alkaline grasslands interrupted by marshes. They have a sizable importance, because there are the fishponds. One of the most spectacular sights of the park is the autumn migration of cranes. Some famous Hungarian animal species live in Hortobágy National Park, such as the grey cattle, racka long-wool sheep living only in Hungary, Hungarian horses and buffalo. Hortobágy National Park has been a UNESCO World Heritage, Site Since 1 December 1999.

.

Nature reserve near Budapest next to Lake Naplás.

Poland

As of 2011, Poland has 1469 nature reserves.

United Kingdom

There are some differences between the regulations for England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, which are separately managed.

At the end of March 2004, there were 215 national nature reserves in England with a total area of 879 square kilometres. The reserves are scattered through England, from Lindisfarne in Northumberland to The Lizard in Cornwall. Nearly every rural county has at least one. Many national nature reserves contain nationally important populations of rare flowers, ferns and mosses, butterflies and other insects and nesting and wintering birds. Examples include unique alpine plants at Upper Teesdale and the field of snake's head fritillaries at North Meadow, Cricklade, Wiltshire.

Path on Szczeliniec Wielki, a famous nature reserve in the Stołowe Mountains in SW Poland

There are now over 1,050 local nature reserve in England. They range from windswept coastal headlands, ancient woodlands and flower-rich meadows to former inner-city railways, long-abandoned landfill sites and industrial areas now re-colonised by wildlife. In total they cover almost 40,000 ha—an impressive natural resource which makes an important contribution to England's biodiversity. A good example is Rye Harbour Nature Reserve in East Sussex, where a network of footpaths enables visitors to explore shingle, saltmarsh, saline lagoon, reedbed and grazing marsh habitats.

Through the Natural Heritage (Scotland) Act 1991 the Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) was established in 1992 as a government body, responsible to the Scottish Government Ministers and through them to the Scottish Parliament. At 31 March 2008 there were 65 Scottish national nature reserve, with a total area of approximately 1330 square kilometres. Section 21 of the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949 gives local authorities the exclusive statutory power to establish a local nature reserve in consultation with the SNH.

Israel

Israel's National Parks and Nature Reserves Act of 1963 defines a nature reserve as "an area where are preserved animal life, plant life, earth, caves or water, which have a scientific or educational significance, from unwanted changes in their appearance, in their biological composition or in their development, and which the Minister of the Interior, through the recommendation of the Minister of Agriculture or subsequent to consultation with him, declared in the protocols that it is a nature reserve." In 1984, the two areas with the highest number of nature reserves were the South (15.2%) and Samaria (the Shomron, 13.5%).

Japan

Under the Nature Conservation Law, places can be designated as 'wilderness areas', 'nature conservation areas' and 'prefectural nature conservation areas'. In 1995, when the Japanese Government published its information in English, there were 5 wildernesses, 10 nature conservation areas and 516 prefectural nature conservation areas.
Jordan

There are seven nature reserves in Jordan. In 1966 the organization that would later start Jordan's nature reserves, the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature, was founded. RSCN's first efforts involved bringing back severely endangered species. In 1973, RSCN was given the right to issue hunting licenses, giving RSCN an upper hand in preventing extinction. The first step was the founding of Jordan's first nature reserve, Shaumari Wildlife Reserve, in 1975. The primary purpose was to create means to breed endangered species, specifically: the Arabian oryx, gazelles, ostriches, and Persian onager in their natural environment.

Kyrgyzstan

By the end of 2009 there were 10 nature reserves (Kyrgyz: корук, koruk) in Kyrgyzstan covering 600,000 hectares (6,000 km²) or about 3% of the total area of the country.

New Zealand

New Zealand has a variety of types of reserve, including National Parks, various types of Conservation Areas (including stewardship land that is yet to be officially classified), and seven specific types of "Reserve", each of which prioritise various degrees of protection to different amenities such as scenery, recreation, flora and fauna, scientific value or history. Land is often sub-categorised beneath its general classification, as defined in law between the Reserves Act of 1977, the National Parks Act of 1980 and the Conservation Act of 1987. Under these classifications, the Department of Conservation administers more than 80,000 km²---nearly 30 percent of the nation's total area---with at least some degree of protection. This land is composed of 14 National Parks, 30 Conservation Parks, and approximately 8,900 discrete areas of land in total.

Although most public land is strongly protected for natural preservation, the term nature reserve is specifically defined in the Reserves Act to mean a reserve that prioritises the protection of rare flora and fauna, to the extent that public access is by permit only. Some of these reserves include Ecological Island, a comparatively new concept in wildlife preservation, pioneered in New Zealand to help re-build the populations of nearly extinct birds, and other species that are heavily threatened by introduced predators.

Nicaragua

In Nicaragua, the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (MARENA) is in charge of environmental protection and of the study, planning, and management of the Nicaragua's natural resources. Nearly one fifth of the territory is designated as protected areas like national parks, nature reserves, and biological reserves. Nicaragua has 78 protected areas that cover 22,422 km², about 17.3% of the nation's landmass. Private nature reserves exist with land excluded from private land trusts and maintained at the sole cost of the proprietor. For example, "O Parks, WildLife, and Recreation" was established within the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor by former FDNY firefighter Kevin Michael Shea, who purchased 46 acres (0.19 km²) of land in this manner and is an example of this type of private nature reserve

Peñas Blancas, part of the Bosawás Biosphere Reserve is the second largest rainforest in the Western Hemisphere, after the Amazonian Rainforest in Brazil. Located northeast of the city of Jinotega in Northeastern Nicaragua

Russia

There are around 100 nature reserves (Russia: заповедник, zapovednik) in Russia, covering some 330,000 square kilometres (130,000 sq mi), or about 1.4% of the country's total area. A few of them predate the October Revolution, of 1917, but most have been created during the Soviet Union era. There are also natural protected areas where only certain species are protected, or only certain activities are prohibited; those are known as zakaznik (Russian: заказник).

South Africa

South Africa is well known for its many reserves. The oldest nature reserve in the country is the Groenkloof Nature Reserve that was established in 1892 in the capital city Pretoria in the old South African Republic and current Republic of South Africa. The country has many national parks but the best-known is the Kruger National Park, which was (proclaimed in 1898), and is the largest, at nearly 2,000,000 hectares (20,000 km²). The Kruger Park and Table Mountain National Park are two of South Africa's most visited tourist attractions. South Africa also has a number of World Heritage Sites and provintial nature reserves including Shamwari, Londolozi, Sanbona and Lalibela. The country currently has 20 national parks covering 3,700,000 hectares (37,000 km²), about 3% of the total area of South Africa.

United States

In the U.S. the United States Fish and Wildlife Service is responsible for managing many nature reserves, including National Wildlife Refuges. State and local governments administer others, and some belong to private trusts, which are funded through personal donations. There are currently 2,205 preservations in the United States. Private nature reserves exist with land excluded from private land trusts and maintained at the sole cost of the proprietor. Wilbur Hot Springs' Dr. Richard Louis Mille donated 1,800 acres (7.3 km²) of land in this manner and is an example of this type of private nature reserve.

Cascade Head, Oregon, United States, is a UNESCO biosphere reserve.

Eritrea

In Eritrea Yob Wildlife Reserve is in charge of looking after the wildlife of plants and animals in that area

References

1. ^ The National Atlas of Sri Lanka (2nd ed.). Department of Survey. 2007. p. 86. ISBN 955-9059-04-1.
2. ^ "Sri Lanka Wildlife Conservation Society (SLWCS)". Retrieved 27 October 2011.
3. ^ "Walton Hall history" . Retrieved 2012-12-17.
4. ^ "Charles Waterton (1782–1865)". Archived from the original on 17 December 2013. Retrieved 29 June 2014.
5. ^ Wakefield Express (2013-02-23). "Sir David Attenborough will open city centre’s new museum". Retrieved 2014-08-24.
6. ^ Weiner, Douglas R. (1988). Models Of Nature: Ecology, Conservation, and Cultural Revolution in Soviet Russia. University of Pittsburgh Press. p. 29. ISBN 978-0-8229-5733-1.
7. ^ "Terrestrial Protected Areas in Australia by Type (2014)". CAPAD 2014. Australian Government - Department of the Environment. 2014. Retrieved 15 September 2015.
8. ^ Law Nº 9.985 of 07/18/2000. Regulates article 225 of the Federal Constitution and institutes the National System of Units of Conservation and other provisions.
9. ^ Dariusz Bochenek (ed.). "Ochrona środowiska 2012" (PDF). Warszawa: Główny Urząd Statystyczny. p. 277. ISSNn0867-3217.mRetrieved 2012-12-29.
10. ^ "Scottish National Heritage (SNH)". Retrieved 27 October 2011.

External Links

•  Media related to Nature reserves at Wikimedia Commons.

- Wikipedia