An effective and internationally recognized strategy for conserving species and ecosystems is to designate protected areas.
An effective and internationally recognized strategy for conserving species and ecosystems is to designate protected areas. The United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Center (UNEP-WCMC) defines a protected area as "an area of land and/or sea especially dedicated to the protection of biological diversity and of natural and associated cultural resources, managed through legal or other effective means." Worldwide, extensive systems of protected areas have been developed and include national parks, state/provincial parks, wildlife refuges, and nature reserves, all of which differ in their management objectives and degree of protection. The IUCN has defined six protected area management categories, based on primary management objective (Table 1). These categories are defined in detail in the Guidelines for Protected Areas Management Categories published by IUCN in 1994.