Australia has 498 national parks, encompassing a total area of 25.8 million hectares.
National parks are only one part of Australia's protected area network.
Other types of protected areas include aboriginal sites, flora and fauna reserves, scientific areas, historic sites, State parks and wildlife sanctuaries. The conservation reserve system does not represent all ecosystems equally, with arid and semi-arid environments, native grassland and wetlands poorly represented when compared to other types of ecosystems. See also the section Use of national parks . Just over one million hectares of these are plantations. Some 457 forest types are recognised in Australia, reflecting their distribution over a wide range of climatic and geographic environments.