The biological diversity of the world has decreased. Sweden has ratified the UN Convention "Convention on Biological Diversity" which aims to increase biodiversity. Formally protected areas in Sweden are national park, national reserve, habitat area and conservation area. Kalmar County follows the national targets where one of the goals is to increase the proportion of protected areas to 20 % of the land area by the year 2020. Climate change is an added stress factor for different species and is seen as one of the most serious threats to biodiversity. To explore the development of formally protected areas in Kalmar County over a period of 20 Years, from 1994 to 2014, the number of areas, its acreage, variability and connectivity has been investigated for the years 1994, 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2014. Analyses have been made of the findings in relation to goals made by the government, current research and the impact of climate change. Facts have been found in literature on the subject and by GIS analysis. The results show that the number of and the acreage of protected areas has increased. The proportion of protected land in Kalmar County during the period increased from 0.65 % to 2.3 %. According to the goals of the government and research on the subject regarding climate change, this is far too low. The variability of habitat has also increased, but according to research and the goals of the government are the different areas too small. An assessment is that the core areas should be on 250 hectares, wich only 5 % of the areas in the County of Kalmar were. The distance between formally protected areas has decreased and the proportion of areas that had direct contact has increased from none to 21.9 % in 2014. Because of insufficient facts and of the big importance of the protected areas surrounding environment, no conclusions can be drawn for connectivity in this study.