Dataset · FAO
Forest Area within Legally Established Protected Areas
6 years, 1990–2025 · 179 countries
This is the share of a country's forest that lies inside legally established protected areas, as each country reported it to FAO's Global Forest Resources Assessment. It is part of SDG indicator 15.2.1, progress towards sustainable forest management.
This site holds every year from 1990 to 2025, read from FAO’s own data and stored exactly as published.
Forest Area within Legally Established Protected Areas · the file
- Newest
- Forest Area within Legally Established Protected Areas, 2025
- Held
- 6 years · 1,000 rows
- Licence
- CC BY 4.0
016 years
Every year
Every year comes from FAO’s 2025 release, recalculated on one method. Each opens the full table for that year; each downloads as a CSV.
| Year | Countries | Change | Read | Download |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forest Area within Legally Established Protected Areas, 2025Newest | 179 | −1 | October 3, 2026 | CSV |
| Forest Area within Legally Established Protected Areas, 2020 | 180 | +9 | October 3, 2026 | CSV |
| Forest Area within Legally Established Protected Areas, 2015 | 171 | +4 | October 3, 2026 | CSV |
| Forest Area within Legally Established Protected Areas, 2010 | 167 | +11 | October 3, 2026 | CSV |
| Forest Area within Legally Established Protected Areas, 2000 | 156 | +9 | October 3, 2026 | CSV |
| Forest Area within Legally Established Protected Areas, 1990 | 147 | — | October 3, 2026 | CSV |
Every year in one file, one row per country per year: protected-forest-all-editions-nations-inquiry.csv
023 columns
What’s in the file
Every column, what it holds, how it is stored and what its values look like — what a reader needs before opening the file.
| Column | What it holds | Stored as | Range, 2025 | Distinct | Empty | Spread |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ISO Codecountry_codeIdentifier | The ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 code, added by this site. Every table here joins on it. | Text · 3 letters | — | 179 | 0 | |
CountrycountryName | The country’s name, as this file spells it. | Text | — | 179 | 0 | |
Forest within legally established protected areas, as a share of the 2015 forest area (%)protected_forest_shareHeadline | The headline figure: Forest within legally established protected areas, as a share of the country's 2015 forest area (%). | Number · up to 2 decimals | 0.002 share it100.00 Saudi Arabiamiddle 18.18 | 173 | 0 |
Profiled from the newest file. Range: the lowest and highest value, with the country holding it when only one does. Spread: countries in ten equal steps from lowest to highest. A higher value is the better result.
03180 countries across every year
Who is covered
How many countries each year holds, continent by continent, who joined and who left, and which places this site covers that the dataset never has.
| 1990 | 2000 | 2010 | 2015 | 2020 | 2025 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Africa | 53 | 53 | 54 | 54 | 54 | 54 |
| Americas | 22 | 25 | 29 | 30 | 35 | 35 |
| Asia | 42 | 42 | 43 | 43 | 44 | 44 |
| Europe | 24 | 29 | 34 | 36 | 36 | 35 |
| Oceania | 6 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 11 | 11 |
| All | 147 | 156 | 167 | 171 | 180 | 179 |
Who joined and who left
- 2025
− Spain - 2020
+ Costa Rica
+ Fiji
+ Honduras
+ Saint Kitts and Nevis
+ Nicaragua
+ Paraguay
+ Solomon Islands
+ Timor-Leste
+ Tuvalu - 2015
+ Bolivia
+ Switzerland
+ France
+ Samoa - 2010
+ Austria
+ Barbados
+ Ireland
+ Japan
+ Liberia
+ Montenegro
+ Panama
+ Peru
+ Portugal
+ El Salvador
+ Ukraine - 2000
+ Belgium
+ Belize
+ Chile
+ Czechia
+ Germany
+ Dominican Republic
+ Lithuania
+ Netherlands
+ Papua New Guinea
Not in this dataset · 45 places this site covers
FAO gives no figure for these in any year held here. It is the publisher’s choice of scope, and each place’s profile shows what is measured.
Anguilla
Antigua and Barbuda
Armenia
Aruba
Bermuda
Bosnia and Herzegovina
British Virgin Islands
Cayman IslandsChannel Islands
Cook Islands
Curaçao
Faroe Islands
French Polynesia
Gibraltar
Greece
Greenland
Guam
Hong Kong
Isle of Man
Kiribati
Kosovo
Luxembourg
Macau
Malta
Monaco
Montserrat
Nauru
New Caledonia
Niue
North MacedoniaNorthern Cyprus
Northern Mariana Islands
Pakistan
Palau
Palestine
Puerto Rico
San Marino
Sint MaartenSomaliland
Taiwan
Tonga
Turkmenistan
Turks and Caicos Islands
United States Virgin Islands
Vatican City04Provenance
Where it comes from
The path from the publisher to this page, and what was checked and changed on the way.
1 · Publisher
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
2 · Their file
Forest Area in Legally Protected Areas 2025
3 · Read by this site
October 3, 2026
Imported by a script that parses each figure and writes it down unrounded.4 · Stored as
6 files, one per year
Each downloads as a CSV, or every year together as protected-forest-all-editions-nations-inquiry.csv5 · Used on
Its statistic page, and every profile it measures
Precision
The headline is stored to 2 decimals, as published.
Rounded by this site
Never. Tables on screen may show fewer decimals; the files never do.
Changed by this site
Reshaped into one row per country: regional and income-group totals are left out, only the columns listed are kept, each row gets its ISO 3166 code, and some country names are brought to one spelling. No value is recalculated, rescaled or rounded.
FAOSTAT's SDG Indicators domain, which republishes the Global Forest Resources Assessment 2025, read from FAO's own bulk download. Readings are published to two decimal places.
05Reuse
Licence and credit
What the publisher’s licence lets you do, what it asks of you, and a credit line and citation ready to copy.
Licence · checked October 3, 2026
- Share and redistribute it
- Adapt it and build on it
- Use it commercially
- Credit the publisher
- Say what you changed
Share, adapt and use commercially. Credit the publisher and say if you changed anything.
A credit line
Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Forest Area within Legally Established Protected Areas, via Nations Inquiry.
Cite this dataset
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Forest Area within Legally Established Protected Areas, 1990–2025 [data set]. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/protected-forest
The publisher’s own citation: FAO. 2026. FAOSTAT: SDG Indicators (SDG indicator 15.2.1, from the Global Forest Resources Assessment 2025). Accessed on 3 October 2026. https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/SDGB Licence: CC-BY-4.0.
Plain-language summary, not legal advice. The licence text is what binds.
06Where it is used
Around the site
Where these numbers appear on this site, and the datasets nearest to it.
Charted
Forest Area within Legally Established Protected Areas by countryWho is highest, the map, the spread, who rose and fell, and the records.
Subjects
Near neighbours
- CO₂ Emissions per CapitaGlobal Carbon Project · 75 held · 1950–2024
- Ecological FootprintGlobal Footprint Network · 65 held · 1961–2025
- Water StressFAO · 24 held · 2000–2023
07Questions
Forest Area within Legally Established Protected Areas: questions and answers
What is the Forest Area within Legally Established Protected Areas?
This is the share of a country's forest that lies inside legally established protected areas, as each country reported it to FAO's Global Forest Resources Assessment. It is part of SDG indicator 15.2.1, progress towards sustainable forest management.
Which years of the Forest Area within Legally Established Protected Areas can I download?
All 6, from 1990 to 2025, each as a CSV file, or every year together in one CSV.
Does FAO rank countries on it?
No, and this site does not order it either. The files hold values only.
Can I use it commercially?
Yes, under CC BY 4.0, with credit to FAO. The licence text is linked on this page.