Protected areas are composed of land, freshwater and marine areas set aside through legislation to protect representative examples of Canada’s ecosystems. They are created and managed by the federal, provincial and territorial governments. A small but increasing number is also administered by Aboriginal governments and communities. Some protected areas are jointly managed by two or more administrations. While this map focuses on public and aboriginal protected areas, an increasing number of private lands are conserved by non-government organizations, such as the Nature Conservancy of Canada. Federal, provincial or territorial and Aboriginal protected areas are grouped separately on this map to show their distribution throughout Canada in 2007. This map shows only the 1385 protected areas which are 10 square kilometres or larger.