WikiProject Protected areas

Shortcut	WP:PAREAS
Category	WikiProject Protected areas
Wikimedia Commons	Protected areas
Parent project(s)	Geography
Project banner template	{{WikiProject Protected areas}}
Assessment	Wikipedia:WikiProject_Protected_areas/Assessment
Popular pages	Wikipedia:WikiProject Protected areas/Popular pages

This WikiProject aims primarily to provide information on all protected areas (abbreviated on this page as PAs) in the world.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)[1] 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.

• Wikipedia:WikiProject Africa/Protected areas task force
• Wikipedia:WikiProject Biodiversity, Protected areas & Environment of India

Below are some suggested open tasks for Wikipedians looking to contribute.

• Create stubs (including the protected area infobox) for missing articles that may be mentioned in Talk page or listed here.
• Stubs should be created from the existing World Database of Protected Areas stewarded by the World Conservation Monitoring Center.
  • List of national parks in Africa
  • List of national parks of China
  • List of U.S. Wilderness Areas
  • List of national parks of Venezuela

• Add infobox to, or upgrade to current template, articles in:
  • List of Canadian national parks (needs map similar to Australia, New Zealand, and U.S.)
  • List of areas in the National Park System of the United States (all National Parks and National Memorials are done)
  • List of U.S. National Forests
  • List of National Wildlife Refuges
  • United States National Marine Sanctuary
  • List of U.S. Wilderness Areas
  • National Estuarine Research Reserve

• Create a full List of National Landscape Conservation System areas
• Expand stub articles from Category:Protected area stubs
• Create navigation box templates similar to {{National parks of the United States}} and {{National Historical Parks of the United States}} (including the clickable map) for each classification of US Park (Monuments, Memorials, etc.).

See also Wikipedia:WikiProject Protected Areas/Status

• Cleanup listing (current)

There shall be a List of Conservation topics which lists the various topics on conservation. (This probably does not belong here...)

There shall be four article levels in this WikiProject:

• Level 1: An article called "Protected area" shall discuss PAs in general, as opposed to any particular PA. Since a PA is almost always associated with one country, it will provide an alphabetical list (with links) of countries that have PAs. An extra item "International Protected Areas" will be added to the list for PAs that are shared by two or more countries.
  
• Level 2: These articles shall discuss a particular country's PAs in general. It shall have an alphabetical list of PA types (such as National Park, Wildlife Sanctuary, ... / no links) which exist in that country, followed by a description. For each type (or combination of types) the existing PAs will be listed alphabetically (with links). For a PA that lies in a dependent territory of that country a mention shall be made of that territory.
  
• Level 3: In countries where all or part of the PAs are not managed on a country level the level 2 articles will contain an alphabetical list of the states/provinces/... (with links) that manage the PAs. The links to which they point shall be the level 3 articles. They shall have the same structure as the level 2 articles.
  
• Level 4: These shall be the actual PA articles.

• A general description;
• A list of countries that have PAs (with links in the "Protected areas of X" format);
• A link to the page "International protected areas".

• A general description;
• A list of PA types with a short explanation;
• A list of PA's per PA type;
• A list of states/provinces/... for PA' which are managed on that level (with links in the "Protected areas of X" format).
• A link to the level 1 article and (an) external link(s), if available.

For test articles see: Protected areas of Australia, Protected areas of the United States

• A general description;
• A list of PA types with a short explanation (if that explanation differs from the explanation given on country level);
• A list of PA's per PA type.
• A link to the corresponding level 2 article and (an) external link(s), if available.

For a test article see: Protected areas of the Australian Capital Territory

• A description. This should contain the PAs location ([state/province/...] (where applicable), [country name], [distance and direction from (a) major or well known city/cities], [date established], [area size], and its main features/points of interest. If available, one or more photos can be included;
• A template containing:
  • The PA's name;
  • IUCN Category;
  • A map locator;
  • Its location ([state/province/...], country);
  • The nearest major or well known city;
  • The PA's area (km², if acres, provide km² in parenthesis); Use {{Convert}}.
  • Its latitude and longitude (major feature, main visitor center if within PA, or center);
  • The date of establishment;
  • The yearly visitation (and year the number is from) if available
  • The governing body/bodies;
• A link to the corresponding level 3 article and (an) external link(s), if available.

Note: depending on the IUCN category a different colour background is used.

For test articles see: Bob Marshall Wilderness
Yellowstone National Park

• Disambiguation pages are probably the best solution if there are PAs of the same type and with the same name in different countries/states/provinces/etc. Example: Glacier National Park

• Infobox, showing the Infobox template, use practices and explanations.

{{WikiProject Protected areas}} can be added to talk pages. It gives this:

Protected areas Unassessed

This article is part of WikiProject Protected areas, a WikiProject related to national parks and other protected natural or ecological areas worldwide.Protected areasWikipedia:WikiProject Protected areasTemplate:WikiProject Protected areasProtected areas ??? This article has not yet received a rating on Wikipedia's content assessment scale. ??? This article has not yet received a rating on the project's importance scale.

This template adds articles to Category:Articles of WikiProject Protected areas.

You may use {{Protected-area-stub}} for any protected area stubs that you write or come across. This will automatically populate the article in the Category:Protected area stubs category.

Another stub, for use in National Park Service articles: {{US-NationalParkService-stub}}.

In May 2008 there were 3,192 articles associated with this wikiproject, by checking category. The number of articles tagged as in the scope of the WikiProject passed 7,000 in July 2011, 10,000 in July 2012, and 16,000 in April 2017.

See the Assessments Department - Instructions and FAQ

• Status page which details current status of articles within the scope of this project.
• Popular pages - top 500 most viewed articles within the scope of this project.

Please add yourself to the bottom of the list by typing ~~~~, and add a note if you wish.

You may also list yourself in the Category:WikiProject Protected areas participants by adding the following to your userpage:

[[Category:WikiProject Protected areas participants|{{subst:PAGENAME}}]]

Another method is to add "protectedareas" to your {{babel}} box. Inclusion of the userbox will automatically add you to the user category.

Or you add the {{User protectedareas}} template to your userpage:

An alternative user box can be added by placing {{User WPA}} on your user page:

• However, please also manually add your name to the project's list of participants (in the section immediately above).

The parent of this WikiProject is the WikiProject Geography.

• WikiProject Ecology
• WikiProject Environment
• WikiProject Forestry
• WikiProject Law
• WikiProject Politics

Boldfaced articles were featured on the main page for Wikipedia.

Africa

• Ambohimanga
• Marojejy National Park

Anarctica

• Antarctica
• Mount Melbourne

North America

Europe

Former featured

• Carlsbad Caverns National Park
• Kaziranga National Park
• Mount Rushmore
• Rondane National Park
• Yosemite National Park

Related articles

By Wikipedians:

• 
  Banff National Park, Canada
• 
  Barn on Mormon Row in Grand Teton National Park
• 
  Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park
• 
  Grand Prismatic Spring, Yellowstone National Park
• 
  Geologic map of Yosemite National Park
• 
  Sawtooth National Forest, US
• 
  Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona, US
• 
  Petrified tree in Petrified Forest National Park, US
• 
  Canaima National Park, Venezuela
• 
  Dead trees in Namib-Naukluft National Park, Namibia
• 
  Namib-Naukluft National Park, Namibia
• 
  Lady Barron Falls, Mount Field NP, Australia
• 
  Russell Falls, Mount Field NP, Australia
• 
  Jamison Valley, Blue Mountains NP, Australia
• 
  Cirque de Gavarnie in the Pyrénées National Park, France

By others:

• 
  Pu'u 'O'o, a Volcanic cone on Kilauea, Hawaii
• 
  Delicate Arch, Arches National Park, Utah
• 
  Pahoehoe fountain
• 
  The Narrows (Zion National Park)
• 
  Bryce Canyon National Park
• 
  Canon de Chelly by Edward S. Curtis
• 
  Grand Teton National Park, by Ansel Adams

See also: Wikipedia:WikiProject National Register of Historic Places#List of fully illustrated lists

• List of Pennsylvania state parks, with 120 pics, completed by User:Dincher, 16 Dec 2009. Awesome! doncram (talk) 18:59, 8 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for noticing! Dincher (talk) 22:34, 8 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

• List of Louisiana state parks, completed by User:Michael miceli. -McGhiever (talk) 23:13, 14 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

• /Map Locators/Australia
• /Map Locators/United States
• Image:Canadian National Parks Location.png
• Image:NZ_Locator_Blank.png
• Image:India-locator-map-blank.svg
• Image:Finland locator map.svg

General

• The UNESCO World Heritage List – official database of all protected sites under the World Heritage Convention
• WCPA World Database on Protected Areas
• UN protected area – definitions, etc.

Australia specific

• Collaborative Australian Protected Area Database (CAPAD) 2018 - summary of terrestrial and marine protected areas within Australian jurisdictions
• CAPAD bi-annual summaries from 2014 back to 2000 and then to 1997
• The Australian Heritage Database is a source for the now-defunct Register of the National Estate, which includes descriptions of many protected areas proclaimed prior to 2007

United States specific

• Protected Areas Database of the United States (PADUS)
• Nat'l Park Service Visitation Database
• Nat'l Historic Landmark Database Search – to see if an area is also an NHL
• Nat'l Register of Historic Places Database Search – to see if an area is on the Register
• Wilderness.net lists virtually every wilderness area in the U.S.

Wikipedia categories

• Category:Protected areas and its various subcategories