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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.