Tracing global protected areas shaped by the enduring interaction of people and nature
Protected Landscape/Seascape: An Atlas of IUCN Category V Conservation and Cultural Landscapes
IUCN Category V recognizes protected landscapes and seascapes where biodiversity, cultural identity, and scenic quality are sustained through long-term human stewardship. Unlike wilderness reserves, these areas feature living systems where land use and natural processes are deeply intertwined. This global overview maps the diverse geographic extent of these designated regions, highlighting the ecological and historical patterns that define their character and conservation objectives.
Safeguarding lived-in ecological systems where human interaction and biodiversity thrive together
Protected Landscape/Seascape: Definition and Global Management Objectives
Category V protected landscapes and seascapes represent areas where the long-term interaction of people and nature has created a distinct zone of high ecological value. Analyzing collaborative management goals helps observers compare diverse global designations that sustain biodiversity through active land use rather than restricted access.
IUCN category V
Protected Landscape/Seascape
IUCN Category V recognizes that some of the world's most valuable conservation landscapes are not places without people, but places shaped by a long and continuing interaction between people and nature. In these areas, biodiversity, cultural identity, local livelihoods, scenic quality, and historical land-use patterns are often deeply intertwined. The category is used where safeguarding the integrity of that interaction is itself essential to conservation. Category V is therefore especially relevant to lived-in landscapes and seascapes whose value depends on continuity, stewardship, and the maintenance of characteristic ecological and cultural patterns over time.
Parks
320
Countries
37
Continents
6
Definition
A Protected Landscape/Seascape is a protected area where the interaction of people and nature over time has produced an area of distinct character with significant ecological, biological, cultural, and scenic value, and where safeguarding the integrity of this interaction is vital to protecting and sustaining the area and its associated nature conservation and other values. The category is not defined by the absence of human presence, but by the quality and significance of a long-evolved relationship between communities, land or sea use, and nature.
Protection objective
Typical objectives include maintaining the characteristic quality and identity of a landscape or seascape, sustaining biodiversity associated with traditional land or sea uses, supporting communities and stewardship practices compatible with conservation, protecting scenic and cultural heritage values, guiding development away from forms that would degrade landscape integrity, encouraging sustainable tourism and local economies, and strengthening long-term resilience of the whole area as a living conservation landscape.
Management approach
Management in Category V is usually integrative, collaborative, and place-based. Rather than separating conservation from human life, it aims to guide land and sea use so that ecological, scenic, and cultural values remain mutually supportive. This may involve planning controls, support for traditional management practices, restoration of degraded features, visitor management, heritage protection, sustainable local economies, and governance arrangements that work across public authorities, private owners, communities, and civil society. Because these places are often dynamic rather than static, management is less about freezing a landscape in time and more about steering change in ways that maintain its defining character, ecological function, and social meaning.
Conservation purpose
The purpose of Category V is to conserve landscapes and seascapes where nature and people have shaped one another over time in ways that produce high ecological, cultural, and scenic value, and to keep that relationship viable into the future through careful stewardship.
Global distribution
Tracing how human-shaped conservation landscapes are mapped across diverse regional systems
Global Distribution of Protected Landscape/Seascape Regions Across Continents
Broad geographic comparison of current atlas records reveals where Protected Landscape/Seascape systems are mapped across major continents. Such representation reflects documented registry entries rather than an exhaustive catalog of legal adoption or actual conservation management on the ground.
Europe
203 represented parks
203
63.4% of category parks
Asia
45 represented parks
45
14.1% of category parks
North America
40 represented parks
40
12.5% of category parks
Oceania
26 represented parks
26
8.1% of category parks
Africa
5 represented parks
5
1.6% of category parks
South America
3 represented parks
3
0.9% of category parks
Continent counts reflect active parks linked to each continent in MoriAtlas; they describe represented atlas coverage, not conservation performance.
Country breakdown
Compare how national protected area systems manage and define conservation landscapes.
Global Distribution of Protected Landscape/Seascape Parks by Country
Country-specific directories organize recorded landscapes and seascapes by their respective nations to help users compare regional conservation models. Individual country records clarify localized environmental boundaries and account for shared transboundary reserves without implying identical national legal codes.
Country counts use geographic park memberships, so a transboundary protected area can be represented in more than one country.
Example parks worldwide
Global protected areas showcasing integrated land management and collaborative stewardship
Representative National Parks and Areas under Protected Landscape/Seascape
Browsing represented park records reveals how different countries protect environments where human communities and natural ecosystems have shaped distinct ecological landscapes. Each documented profile provides geographic context, maps, and specific designations to show how Category V management objectives function across diverse global territories.
National parkCaliforniaMarine
Redwood National and State Parks
Explore California's protected area atlas.
Gain a structured understanding of Redwood National and State Parks as a protected national park within the geographic context of California. This dedicated page focuses on its mapped boundaries and protected landscape identity, offering critical atlas-level insights for regional geography exploration and conservation land context. Discover how this protected area fits into the larger mapped terrain.
Mapped boundaries and natural terrain context for this UK national park.
Investigate the Peak District National Park, a cornerstone of the United Kingdom's protected natural areas. This MoriAtlas entry provides essential details on its geographic scope, mapped boundaries, and landscape characteristics. Engage with structured data to understand how this national park fits into the atlas of the United Kingdom, supporting detailed geographic and protected-area discovery for researchers and explorers.
Analyzing differences in primary management objectives, definitions, and stewardship approaches
Protected Landscape and Seascape Categories Compared to Other IUCN Classifications
Contrasting various IUCN categories highlights how Protected Landscape and Seascape designations integrate human communities with biodiversity conservation. Analyzing adjacent management objectives prevents the misinterpretation of category numbers as direct measures of ecological quality or conservation value.
IA
Strict Nature Reserve
A highly protected area managed mainly for science, monitoring, and the safeguarding of biodiversity, geological features, or ecological processes with minimal human disturbance.
A usually large, unmodified or only slightly modified area protected to preserve its natural character, ecological integrity, and sense of wilderness without permanent or significant human habitation.
A large natural or near-natural protected area managed to safeguard ecological processes, characteristic species, and ecosystems while also supporting education, recreation, and compatible visitor use.
A protected area established to conserve a specific natural feature such as a landform, geological structure, cave, seamount, waterfall, grove, or other distinct natural monument.
Protected Area with Sustainable Use of Natural Resources
A generally large protected area that conserves ecosystems and cultural values while allowing compatible, low-level, non-industrial use of natural resources as part of its management approach.
