Protected areas, 31 December 2005

In all 22 000 square kilometres are protected by the nature conservation act. This is about 12 per cent of the land area in Norway. In addition there are areas protected by other laws. This is shown by figures for nature protection, for the first time given at the municipality level.

Large regional differences

There are huge differences in how much area is protected by the nature conservation act, both at the county and at the municipal level.

163 municipalities have less than 1 per cent of the land area protected by the nature conservation act.. On top of the list are 8 municipalities with nature protection covering more than half of their land area. Leading is Lyngen municipality with 67.8 per cent (550 km²). Saltdal municipality is, however, number one measured by area, with 1 412 km². Common for most municipalities with a high share of nature protection area is that they have a large amount of mountainous areas, glaciers or low productivity areas.

There are also great differences among counties. Vestfold County has the least protected nature area, both in proportion (1.1 per cent) and in area (25 km²). On the other hand, Nordland county has 5 325 km² protected by the nature conservation act. Measured by area however 7 other counties come higher up. In per cent, Hordaland, Aust-Agder and Møre and Romsdal counties are on top. All have about 19 per cent of their area protected.

National parks are largest

The national parks stands for more than half (55 per cent) of the protection types given in nature protection act. Landscape protection stands for more than one third, with above 14 000 km². In all more than 40 000 km² are protected by the nature conservation act (see figure below).

The figure shows the amount of area protected by the nature conservation act the last 30 years. The amount of protected area has increased the most in the last 5 years.

About the figures

Number and area of protected areas are based upon digital maps for protected areas from the Directorate for Nature Conservation. Digital maps for protected areas have been analysed with geographical overlay with digital maps for administrative boundaries.

Figures for municipalities and counties are available in the StatBank. Aggregation of area figures from different geographical levels may give deviating sums. Some protected areas might cross both municipal and county borders; sums from different geographical levels will hence deviate.

See also :
State of the Environment in Norway http://www.environment.no/
The Nature Conservation Act http://www.lovdata.no/
The National Mapping Authority http://www.statkart.no/
The Directorate for Nature Conservation http://www.dirnat.no/
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources http://www.iucn.org/

For more information please contact :