Nature Conservation

With such limited space on its few islands, Tekniania is one of the few nations whose entire existence is dependent on them preserving their nature and making sure that everyone else continues to preserve it. As such, from its inception many laws have been passed to make sure that the entirety of Tekniania’s nature is, in some way, protected.

There are islands, but there is also ocean in this country. It’s one of the most protected parts of the Teknianian Ocean (as they call it), with the most important areas designated as no-touch zones, officially classed as “Natural Protection Zone, Class A”. That means that even going there requires explicit permission from the Department of Sea Affairs for both the ship and the people aboard it, and these permissions are given out, by law, to no more than 15 ships and 100 people per ship, per calendar year and any ship given such permission is always accompanied by a team from the Department.

These areas are far between, however, and most places are “Natural Protection Zone, Class B”, meaning that ships can pass through without stopping and cannot tamper in any way with the ocean. Entering these zones still requires permission from the Department of Sea Affairs, but getting them is much easier and permission is only required for the ship itself.

As a tourist, however, it’s unlikely that you’ll be visiting the above zones much or at all, but you will see lots of “Natural Protection Zones, Class C”. These are areas of the ocean which anyone can enter and fishing can occur in and ships are actually allowed to stop here. These are the most common, and make up around 40% of Tekniania’s oceans.

“Natural Protection Zone, Class D” caps off our bell curve, also being rarely seen, as these are the heavy industry zones of the ocean. Sand dredging, offshore wind farms, you name it – it happens here, with the exception of fossil fuel extraction, as permissions for that are no longer given out and the still active ones are slowly expiring, one by one.

These zones, when on land, are mostly marked off with signs and, occasionally, fences. At sea, the Department of Sea Affairs, in association with the Sea Guard and local State Guards, maintains a network of buoys, which also ping onto ship radars, alerting them ahead of time when they're approaching a dangerous or protected area.

Tourist information - we recommend checking always with the local office of the Department of Sea Affairs when arriving on a new island, as proper signage can sometimes not be up to date and only these offices will be able to provide you with accurate information about the local protected areas. In addition, the Department of Sea Affairs produces the “SeaDirectory” app, which sends notifications to your device when you are approaching a protected or industrialised area.

Moving swiftly onto dry land, after your swim you’ll naturally want to dry out in the sand, but you must be careful not to walk on any restricted beaches. These are often home to species of crabs, jellyfish and other amphibians and may not be safe to walk on unless so marked. On the major islands, almost all beaches are perfectly fine to walk on, but on smaller islands you might need to watch out not only because it might be illegal to walk on these beaches, but also because these species can be deadly.

Moving into the interior of the islands, pretty much any built-up area is fine to walk around in and do whatever in, but the forests and plains outside of them have various levels of protection, which are controlled by the local State and so can’t be cleanly described in one short factbook entry, but most restricted areas will be clearly marked, but in any case – take care to leave no trace when traversing Tekniania’s immense natural beauty.

There are some good news regarding all this – many of these protected areas also double as tourist attractions, and so long as you follow all of the rules of the specific location, you should be more than okay. For example, one of the most famous national parks in Tekniania, Mount Munboia National Park on Kivoli is one of these protected areas and, while you can’t actually travel into the national park, you can hike around it where there are many beautiful viewing areas and sights to see.