As of 2012, state special protected areas (SPAs) occupied over 27 million ha (17.4 per cent of the total territory). In 2017, the state SPA system includes 20 strictly protected areas encompassing 12.4 million ha (7.93 per cent of the country’s territory), 32 national parks encompassing 11.9 million ha (7.6 per cent), 36 nature reserves encompassing 3.5 million ha (2.26 per cent) and 14 natural monuments encompassing a total area of 128,962.78 ha (0.08 per cent). Initiatives on comanagement approaches, transferring the management rights to NGOs, entities and local communities, have been started on a contractual basis under certain conditions. Three protected areas are managed by NGOs (chapter 11).