The international community designates a variety of protected areas – such as UNESCO World Heritage Sites, Biosphere Reserves, Global Geoparks and Ramsar Wetlands – to safeguard nature. However, as these protected areas expand globally, overlaps between two or more designations within a single region have increased. These overlapping areas are referred to as Multi-Internationally Designated Areas (MIDAs), and their numbers are on the rise globally.
Since MIDAs involve multiple protection systems operating within a single region, they require more efficient cooperation strategies than do individual IDAs. Efforts focus on achieving each area's objectives effectively while maximizing synergy between them.