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New map features more than 200,000 North American Terrestrial Protected Areas
Updated Terrestrial Protected Areas map and database contains 50 percent more protected areas than in 2008
- The area of North America's ecoregions that is protected ranges from 2 to 51 percent.
- New map viewer uses Google Earth to explore all of the Atlas' terrestrial ecosystems maps and data.
- LifeWeb's new carbon calculator tool shows that North America's protected areas store approximately 15 percent of the continent's total carbon stock.
Marking the International Year of Biodiversity and the 125th anniversary of Banff National Park, Canada's first such creation, the latest map from the North American Environmental Atlas shows the diverse locations of protected areas across North America. This map includes 50 percent more protected areas than the 2008 version.
The terrestrial protected areas map of North America shows protected areas that are managed by national, state, provincial or territorial authorities. From well-known national parks like Banff to the bi-state Big Frog Wilderness Area in the southeastern United States and La Primavera Man and Biosphere Reserve in Mexico, these areas are important to enhance and strengthen the conservation of biodiversity in critical ecoregions throughout North America. They represent a functional system of ecologically-based protected areas that depend on broad cooperation.
Data for this map come from the Canada's Canadian Council on Ecological Areas, Quebec's Ministry of Sustainable Development, Environment and Parks, Mexico's Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas, The Nature Conservancy (TNC) Mexico, the United States USGS Gap Analysis Program, and the Conservation Biology Institute. A large portion of the protected areas have been assigned an IUCN category based on agreed-upon international standards. Areas as yet unclassified still benefit from protection but for various reasons do not have an assigned IUCN category.
North American Protection of Ecoregions
Each of the 15 ecoregions featured in the Terrestrial Ecoregions Level I map contain a proportion of North America's protected areas. Protection of these ecoregions ranges from approximately two percent in the Great Plains, Eastern Temperate Forests and Taiga ecoregions to 51 percent in the Marine West Coast Forests. This animation shows the percent of each of ecoregion protected by the current protected area system.
Click to enlarge
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www.cec.org/naatlas
ABOUT THE ATLAS
The North American Environmental Atlas assembles seamless, accurate, geospatial data, including maps, documentation and interactive map layers. The variety of base and thematic map layers is continuously expanding, providing a foundation to analyze the status of environmental conditions and identify significant trends across North America.
Integrated Google Earth maps
Many of the Atlas map layers can now be viewed from within the new map viewer using standard Google Earth files that can also be downloaded. For example, clicking on one of the 24 ecoregions in the Marine Ecoregions map displays detailed information about the ecoregion, along with a photo and links to more information. Launch
A North American partnership
The Atlas was created through the cooperation of scientists and map makers from Natural Resources Canada, Mexico’s Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía, the United States Geological Survey, and other agencies in each country through the work of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation.
Read the Atlas brochure
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Why are there so many ecoregion classifications of North America?
There are currently several ecoregion frameworks or classification schemes in use and being adapted by numerous organizations and governments to manage natural resources in North America. These include classifications by:
- Küchler (1993), using potential natural vegetation;
- R.G Bailey (1998) and the US Forest Service, emphasizing climate;
- J.M. Omernik (1995) and the EPA, characterized by land surface form;
- Olson and Dinerstein, WWF-USA (1998);
- UN Food and Agriculture Organization (1998); and
- the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (1997).
The lack of consensus to achieve a single ecoregion classification system stems from:
- Disagreement on the definition of an ecoregion;
- Bias towards particular characteristics, scales and criteria of ecoregions;
- The complex and dynamic nature of ecoregions and their boundaries;
- Differences in categorical definitions, indicators and philosophies;
- Disagreement on the use of algorithmic (quantitative) or holistic (qualitative) approaches;
- Regional, national, provincial and state priorities; and
- Strategic investment in existing schemes and reluctance to adopt new frameworks.
Read the CEC's Ecological Regions of North America (1997) for more information on the CEC's classification.
While there is no one correct ecoregion classification, several attempts have been made to utilize holistic and hierarchal schemes to characterize and map biological and environmental patterns to identify spatial units for conservation and natural resource management at regional and global scales. The holistic approach adopted by the CEC in classifying and delineating terrestrial ecoregions in North America has proven helpful in building consensus in areas of resource management and in the designation of protected areas. The CEC's approach also offers the flexibility and ability to accommodate different scales or levels of generalization of environmental information with a consistent set of criteria and nested spatial units for levels I-III.
North American Terrestrial Ecosystems
The CEC's collection of terrestrial ecosystem maps is now available in Google Earth. These maps depict the CEC's work on terrestrial ecosystems (Levels l-lll), land cover, priority conservation areas for the grasslands, terrestrial protected areas, and habitat maps of terrestrial species of common conservation concern. Explore the maps and download the Google Earth kml files at: http://www.cec.org/atlas/terrestrial/.
Watch a flyover of these maps at: www.cec.org/naatlas.
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