This polygon data set includes the protected areas of the Southern
Mountain States, United States of America that are managed by national,
state, provincial, or territorial authorities. As defined by the
International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), a protected
area is an area of land and/or sea especially dedicated to the
protection and maintenance of biological diversity, and of natural and
associated cultural resources, and managed through legal or other
effective means. The data set was assembled for the Commission for
Environmental Cooperation (CEC) from other public data sets containing
data on protected areas in Canada, Mexico, and the United States.
Protected area data was obtained from Natural Resources Canada for areas
in Canada; the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas (CONANP)
and the Nature Conservancy, Pronatura, and the National Commission for
Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity (CONABIO) for areas in Mexico; and the
Conservation Biology Institute (CBI) for areas in the United States.
This is an updated version of the March, 2008 data set. States included
in this dataset: Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah.