National Parks
WorldCulturalPhysical EnvironmentLocations of terrestrial and marine protected areas
Protected PlanetA world map shows national parks highlighted in green.
In North America, national parks are scattered across northern and western Canada, Canada’s Arctic islands, and eastern Canada’s Great Lakes region, Saint Lawrence River Valley, and Maritime Provinces. In the United States, larger national parks are mainly in Alaska and the western states, with a few sizeable parks in the East, including Florida and the Appalachians. Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean have smaller national parks. Most of northeastern Greenland is a national park. In South America, national parks are concentrated in the Amazon basin and in the Patagonian Andes and Tierra del Fuego in the south. In Europe, parks are widely distributed from Iceland to Russia, including the UK, Norway, the Alps, Spain, and southeastern Europe. North Africa and the Sahara have few parks, with some in Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Western Sahara, and coastal Mauritania. Sub-Saharan Africa has parks scattered across West, East, and southern Africa, with the largest parks in East Africa along the Great Rift Valley to southern Africa. Madagascar has small parks. Southwest and Central Asia have few parks, with some in Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, and Tajikistan. South Asia’s parks run along the Himalayas from Pakistan to Bhutan, with small parks in India and Sri Lanka. In Southeast Asia, Thailand and Indonesia have numerous parks, while other countries have fewer. East Asia shows parks in South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan, but none in China, North Korea, or Mongolia. Oceania features numerous parks in Australia and New Zealand, mainly on New Zealand’s South Island.