Wikipedia:WikiProject Protected areas

This is a WikiProject, an area for focused collaboration among Wikipedians.

Shortcut: WP:PAREAS

Roseberry Topping, a Site of Special Scientific Interest on North York Moors, England.

Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve, USA.

Kakadu Escarpment, in Kakadu National Park, Northern Territory of Australia.

Lake and bog of Black Moshannon State Park, Pennsylvania, USA.

Yosemite National Park, California, USA.

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) 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.

[edit] Sub projects

[edit] Open tasks

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.

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

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.).

[edit] Cleanup

Cleanup listing (current)
Cleanup listing by WolterBot (last updated March 2010)

[edit] Structure

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.

[edit] Formatting

[edit] Formatting of the level 1 article (Protected area)

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".

[edit] Formatting of level 2 articles

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

[edit] Formatting of level 3 articles

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

[edit] Formatting of level 4 articles

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]) 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);
- 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

[edit] Note

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

[edit] Protected areas infobox

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

[edit] Project messages

[edit] Wikiproject message

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

WikiProject Protected areas

This article is part of WikiProject Protected areas, a WikiProject related to national parks and other protected natural or ecological areas worldwide.

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This article has not yet received a rating on the project's quality scale.

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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.

[edit] Protected-area Stub

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.

[edit] NPS Stub

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

[edit] Assessments

In May 2008 there were 3,192 articles associated with this wikiproject, by checking category. As of July 2011 there were 7,100 articles.

See the Assessments Department - Instructions and FAQ

Protected areas articles by quality and importance
Quality	Importance
Quality	Top	High	Mid	Low	NA	???	Total
FA	1	7	9	11		1	29
FL		3	1	1		13	18
A			1				1
GA		3	16	10		8	37
B	1	13	25	21		137	197
C		23	44	78		134	279
Start	8	48	277	228		1,142	1,703
Stub	3	25	150	529		4,601	5,308
List	1	33	52	60	5	190	341
NA			1		258		259
Assessed	14	155	576	938	263	6,226	8,172
Unassessed				1		1,004	1,005
Total	14	155	576	939	263	7,230	9,177

[edit] Status

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.