Protected Areas, International Comparison

This chart compares a selection of industrialized countries using international data. Canada is fourth in total land area protected, ranking behind the United States, Russia and Australia. Globally in 2009, 11.6% of all land and fresh waters were protected, an increase of 34% since 1990.[1] Canada is below this level with 8.0%.

Terrestrial protected area and proportion of land territory protected in selected countries, 2009

Chart: Terrestrial protected area and proportion of land territory protected in selected countries, 2009

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How this indicator was calculated

Note: Includes land and fresh water areas. Results for Canada are shown here using international data sources only. (Please see Data Sources and Methods  for explanation of differences.) Selected countries are the G8, Australia (the population, population density and territorial extent of which are similar to Canada’s) and Sweden (which has a similar climate).

Source: Summary data generated for the UN Millennium Development Goals analysis from the World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA). The WDPA is a joint project of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), hosted and managed by UNEP-World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC). Retrieved January 2010.

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Other information


[1] IUCN and UNEP-WCMC (2011) The World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA): January 2011, UNEP-WCMC.