The Original Eleven (2093)

The International Convention established eleven protected zones across the globe, each overseen by a scientific custodian appointed by the United Nations:

  1. Sequoia National Park, USA. Custodian: Dr. Eleanor Whitfield. The only zone still standing in 2325.
  2. Niger River Delta, Nigeria. Custodian: Dr. Amara Okafor. Failed 2175. Deliberately poisoned as an anti-biological warfare testbed. The first terrestrial zone to fall.
  3. Amazon Basin, Brazil/Peru. Custodian: Dr. Carlos Nascimento. Failed 2198. Destroyed by bioweapon attack during the Resource Wars.
  4. Congo Basin, DRC. Custodian: Dr. Joseph Ilunga. Failed 2201. Strip-mined for rare earth elements.
  5. Great Barrier Reef, Australia. Custodian: Dr. James Yunupingu. Failed 2178. First marine zone lost to ocean acidification.
  6. Madagascar. Custodian: Dr. Marie Razafindrabe. Failed 2195. Rising sea levels and isolation.
  7. Fiordland Wilderness, New Zealand. Custodian: Dr. Aroha Henare. Failed 2224. Second-to-last zone, fell despite geographic isolation.
  8. Torres del Paine, Chile/Argentina. Custodian: Dr. Isabella Rodriguez. Failed 2220. Deliberately burned.
  9. Borneo Rainforest, Malaysia/Indonesia. Custodian: Dr. Faridah Binti Hassan. Failed 2212. Clear-cut for palm oil and rare earth extraction.
  10. Galapagos Islands, Ecuador. Custodian: Dr. Elena Vargas. Failed 2205. Military "testing accident."
  11. Mesoamerican Corridor, Central America. Custodian: Dr. Roberto Castillo. Failed 2217. Severed by military fortifications.

The Second Amendment Zones (2152)

As the original zones began showing stress, three additional preserves were added:

  1. New Zealand Temperate Preserve. Failed 2224.
  2. Arctic Circle Conservation Zone. Failed 2209. Resource exploitation.
  3. East African Savanna, Kenya/Tanzania. Failed 2205. Strip-mined.

The Pattern

The Niger Delta's failure in 2175 was officially attributed to "industrial contamination." Later revealed to be deliberate poisoning, a test of anti-biological network warfare that set the precedent for every zone destruction that followed. Each subsequent failure was disguised as environmental collapse: acidification, sea level rise, "testing accidents." The pattern is invisible unless you know to look for it.

By 2225, only Sequoia remained. The zone where the story begins.