---
id: "iucn_protected_area_category"
kind: "datatype"
status: "draft"
is_pii: false
categories: ["environment", "geo"]
langs: ["common"]
quality: 80
url: "https://registry.apicrafter.io/datatype/iucn_protected_area_category"
---

# IUCN protected area management category (`iucn_protected_area_category`)

> **Draft.** Draft records have not been reviewed yet and may be incomplete or wrong; do not treat them as authoritative for legal or compliance decisions.

Code of the IUCN management category of a protected area, which groups sites by their main management objective: Ia strict nature reserve, Ib wilderness area, II national park, III natural monument or feature, IV habitat/species management area, V protected landscape/seascape, VI protected area with sustainable use of natural resources. National authorities assign it and the World Database on Protected Areas stores it in the IUCN_CAT field, where sites without a category have Not Reported, Not Applicable or Not Assigned; this pattern does not accept those values. The categories are not a ranking of importance.

- Personal data (PII): no
- Categories: Environment (protected areas, biodiversity, water, weather, emissions, waste) (environment), Geographic identifiers (geo)
- Countries: global
- Languages: Common to most languages (common)
- Classification: categorical

## Detection

Regular expression (Python `re`):

```
^(?:Ia|Ib|II|III|IV|V|VI)$
```

## Examples

- `Ia` — Chatkal Biosphere State Reserve, Uzbekistan (WDPA 1761); Protected Planet
- `Ib` — Richardson Lake Migratory Bird Sanctuary, Canada (WDPA 18696); Protected Planet
- `II` — Harz National Park, Germany (WDPA 103142); Protected Planet
- `VI` — Murray Lake Migratory Bird Sanctuary, Canada (WDPA 18691); Protected Planet
- `Not Reported` (invalid example) — WDPA value for a site without a reported category, such as the Ross Sea Region Marine Protected Area

## Translations

- ru: Категория управления охраняемой территорией МСОП: Код категории МСОП, которая группирует охраняемые территории по основной цели управления: Ia, Ib, II, III, IV, V, VI. Категорию присваивают национальные органы; в базе WDPA она хранится в поле IUCN_CAT.

## Sources

- doc: <https://portals.iucn.org/library/sites/library/files/documents/PAG-021.pdf>
- doc: <https://www.protectedplanet.net/en/resources/wdpa-manual>
- wikipedia: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IUCN_protected_area_categories>

## Quality

Score 80/100. Missing: mapping (Wikidata, Schema.org, ...), detector coverage.

JSON: <https://registry.apicrafter.io/api/v1/datatypes/iucn_protected_area_category.json> · Edit: <https://github.com/apicrafter/metacrafter-registry/edit/main/data/datatypes/any/environment/iucn_protected_area_category.yaml>