Nepal now manages 20 protected areas in total: 12 national parks, 1 wildlife reserve, 6 conservation areas, and 1 hunting reserve. Two entries from older lists, Parsa and Shuklaphanta, were reclassified from wildlife reserves to national parks in 2017, which changes the counts from what you'll see in older guides.
National Parks (12)
- Chitwan National Park, 952.63 km², Nepal's first national park, established 1973
- Bardiya National Park, 968 km² (the "Royal" prefix was dropped after the monarchy ended in 2008, so this is Bardiya National Park, not Royal Bardia)
- Sagarmatha (Everest) National Park, 1,148 km²
- Shivapuri Nagarjun National Park, 159 km²
- Langtang National Park, 1,710 km²
- Shey-Phoksundo National Park, 3,555 km², the largest national park in the country
- Rara National Park, 106 km², the smallest national park in the country
- Khaptad National Park, 225 km²
- Makalu-Barun National Park, 1,500 km², with an additional 830 km² buffer zone
- Banke National Park, 550 km², established 2010
- Parsa National Park, 637 km², upgraded from Parsa Wildlife Reserve in 2017
- Shuklaphanta National Park, 305 km², upgraded from Shuklaphanta Wildlife Reserve in 2017
Wildlife Reserve (1)
- Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve, 175 km²
Conservation Areas (6)
- Annapurna Conservation Area, 7,629 km², the largest protected area in Nepal
- Kanchenjunga Conservation Area, 2,035 km²
- Manaslu Conservation Area, 1,663 km²
- Gaurishankar Conservation Area, 2,179 km²
- Api Nampa Conservation Area, 1,903 km²
- Krishnasaar (Blackbuck) Conservation Area, 15.95 km², set up specifically to protect the blackbuck population in Bardiya district
Hunting Reserve (1)
- Dhorpatan Hunting Reserve, 1,325 km²
Endangered Species
Some of the endangered and near-threatened species found across these protected areas:
- Bengal tiger
- Greater one-horned rhino
- Snow leopard
- Argali (locally called nyan)
- Tibetan antelope
- Blackbuck
- Four-horned antelope
- Musk deer
- Pygmy hog
- Clouded leopard
- Red panda
- Himalayan brown bear
- Assamese macaque
- Gangetic river dolphin
- Grey wolf
- Wild Asian elephant
- Great hornbill
- Swamp deer
- Wild yak
- Hispid hare
- Gharial
- Bengal florican
- Sarus crane
- Himalayan monal (Danphe), Nepal's national bird
- Indian python