This polygon data set includes the protected areas of North 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 from other public data sets containing data on protected areas in Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Protected area data were obtained from Natural Resources Canada and the Quebec Ministry of Sustainable Development, Environment and Parks for areas in Canada; the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas (CONANP) and the Nature Conservancy for areas in Mexico; and the Protected Areas Database (PAD-US Partnership) for areas in the United States. This is a replacement for the July 2008 data set.