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Protected Areas

Overview

Protected Areas are places 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 (IUCN 2008). It includes national and state parks and forests, wilderness areas, nature preserves, wildlife refuges, and other lands where there is a formal intent to maintain the area in a primarily natural state.

Data Layer Description

Source

Since there is no comprehensive inventory and data layer of protected areas for the United States, this data layer is a hybrid of a number of sources. It is very much a draft compilation and a work in progress. The source for most states is Conservation Biology Institute’s Protected Areas Database (CBI-PAD) version 4.5, which was compiled from a wide range of agencies and organizations. 

In the Northeastern states, CBI-PAD has been replaced with data from The Nature Conservancy’s Eastern Conservation Science office covering 12 states from Ohio and Maryland in the South to the St. Lawrence River in the North. For the five LandScope America pilot states (Maine, Virginia, Florida, Colorado, and Washington) it incorporates the best available statewide protected areas data, provided by each of the organizations that are compiling and managing the data for those states.

• Conservation Biology Institute
• Eastern Conservation Science, The Nature Conservancy
• Natural Resources Ecology Lab, Colorado State University
• Florida Natural Areas Inventory
• Maine Chapter, The Nature Conservancy
• Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, Natural Heritage Program
• Washington Chapter, The Nature Conservancy

What this data layer represents

Protected Areas of the United States displayed by management sector and level of protection.

Location

The data layer covers the United States, minus territories

Description

The map represents the "U.S. Conservation Estate," which includes areas that have been protected by various means and at varying levels by federal, state, local, private, and tribal organizations and individuals. The areas are colored based on the sector of the managing organization including, Federal, State, or Local government agencies, Private organizations and individuals, Tribal agencies, or Joint management through partnerships across sectors. The colors are modified to be darker or lighter based on the conservation management status and intent, with darker shades representing higher levels of status and intent, and lighter shades representing “semi-protected” areas, which may be subject to limited extractive uses. These areas are intended to remain in a primarily natural state and are not subject to extensive, high-impact uses.

Although it includes over 270,000 parcels, the data layer is not 100% complete or accurate for reasons described below:

1. Currency:  Protected areas are being designated on an ongoing basis, so recently protected parcels may not have been submitted or integrated into the statewide, regional, or nationwide sources that have been compiled through LandScope America. The compilers work hard to update their data sets as quickly as resources allow, but resources are generally limited.
2. Privacy:  Some protected area managers are concerned about the privacy and accessibility of their parcels, particularly for conservation easements on private lands. Thus, they may not have provided their data to the organizations compiling the data.
3. Filtering:  There are many types of protected areas, with varying levels of conservation intent and management, ranging from nature reserves and wilderness areas established purely for nature conservation, to multi-use areas that are subject to high-impact uses such as clearcut logging, mining, energy development, and intensive vehicular recreation. The data layer has been filtered to include only those parcels that are intended to be managed for the long-term conservation of nature with associated ecosystem services and cultural values. Those familiar with Gap Analysis Program (GAP) Stewardship classes will recognize them as areas coded as GAP 1, 2, and 3. The filter we applied is based on GAP classes that were assigned by the original data source or by the state, regional, or national source that provided the data to LandScope America.
4. Compilation errors:  This is a large and complex data set, attempting to represent the complex real-world phenomenon of land protection. It has been compiled and re-compiled from hundreds of different sources using different methods, tools, and skills. The process of aggregating and filtering such widely varying data from so many sources is likely to introduce errors of omission, commission, or misclassification.

The lack of a comprehensive inventory of protected areas for the United States presents a major challenge to effective conservation planning, monitoring, and evaluation. This challenge is now being addressed by a consortium of organizations, working to design a structure for developing, maintaining, and publishing this critical component of the nation's information infrastructure. More information on this PAD-US Design Project can be found at ProtectedLands.net.

How to get the data layer

This data set is not currently being distributed. It is developed and maintained exclusively for the LandScope America initiative. Please contact the organizations listed above for the source data.

ProtectedLands.net provides an updated listing of the organizations managing protected areas for each state and agency.

How you might make use of this data layer

Use this layer for national, regional, and statewide conservation planning and communications, as a general reference as to which areas are currently protected. Its usefulness and reliability for local scale planning will vary depending on the quality, completeness, and accuracy of the data that have been compiled for a given state. This layer is in no way intended to support the conveyancing of real estate.

How to get more information

Contact the LandScope team or the references below for more information about this data layer.

References

Conservation Biology Institute. 2008. Protected Areas Database (PAD) Version 4.5

IUCN 2008. Guidelines for applying protected area management categories. This document includes the standard definition of protected areas used in LandScope America and by the PAD-US Design Project.

PAD-US Design Project and Data Portal

USGS GAP Analysis Program. First attempt to systematically compile protected areas data across the US. Established GAP Stewardship classes to differentiate levels of protection and management (see GAP Handbook).

Sample Map