Protected area coverage for terrestrial biomes in Iran

Efficiency of the existing protected areas network in conservation of biodiversity is one of the most important challenges of protected areas custodians. Despite there are numerous articles on evaluating the efficiency of the protected areas for conserving the habitat and species on national and international scales, in Iran this subject has not been studied yet. The aim of the present study is to investigate the efficiency of Iran’s protected areas in country's biome protection. The results showed large differences in country's biomes coverage by protected areas categories. Given that each category of protected area has different goals and existence of all categories is essential to achieve the goal of biodiversity conservation, it is recommended that in the future development of protected areas in country, the appropriate coverage of each biome should be considered. This means that the map of country's biomes is suggested being the basis for selection of new protected areas in country.