And the country has nearly 24% of its land area as protected areas, including national parks, conservation areas and wildlife reserves.

BBC: Attacks prompt Nepal to cap wildlife growth

Big Flat sits in the middle of the Bureau of Land Management's 64, 000-acre King Range National Conservation Area, a patch of northern California so rugged that the engineers who built Highway 1, which hugs the coast from San Diego to Oregon, took the road 30 miles inland here to avoid it.

FORBES: Paradise Lost

Central government, the local community and environmentalists agreed to put land and forest of significance in the control of the Department of Conservation, with a small area of 50, 000 hectares made available for sustainable indigenous forest harvesting.

ECONOMIST: Fact or fission