A national park is a park in use for conservation purposes. Often it is a reserve of natural,
semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual
nations designate their own national parks differently, there is a common idea: the conservation
of 'wild nature' for posterity and as a symbol of national pride. An international organization,
the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and its World Commission on
Protected Areas (WCPA), has defined "National Park" as its Category II type of protected
areas.While this type of national park had been proposed previously, the United States
established the first "public park or pleasuring-ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people",
Yellowstone National Park, in 1872. Although Yellowstone was not officially termed a "national
park" in its establishing law, it was always termed such in practice and is widely held
to be the first and oldest national park in the world. However, the Tobago Main Ridge
Forest Reserve (established in 1776), and the area surrounding Bogd Khan Uul Mountain
(1778) are seen as the oldest legally protected areas, predating Yellowstone by nearly a century.
The first area to use "national park" in its creation legislation was the U.S.'s Mackinac,
in 1875. Australia's Royal National Park, established in 1879, was the world's third
official national park. In 1895 ownership of Mackinac National Park was transferred
to the State of Michigan as a state park and national park status was consequently lost.
As a result, Australia's Royal National Park is by some considerations the second oldest
national park now in existence. Canada established Parks Canada in 1911, becoming the world's
first national service dedicated to protecting and presenting natural and historical treasures.The
largest national park in the world meeting the IUCN definition is the Northeast Greenland
National Park, which was established in 1974. According to the IUCN, 6,555 national parks
worldwide met its criteria in 2006. IUCN is still discussing the parameters of defining
a national park.National parks are almost always open to visitors. Most national parks
provide outdoor recreation and camping opportunities as well as classes designed to educate the
public on the importance of conservation and the natural wonders of the land in which the
national park is located.
== Definitions ==
In 1969, the IUCN declared a national park to be a relatively large area with the following
defining characteristics: One or several ecosystems not materially altered
by human exploitation and occupation, where plant and animal species, geomorphological
sites and habitats are of special scientific, educational, and recreational interest or
which contain a natural landscape of great beauty;
Highest competent authority of the country has taken steps to prevent or eliminate exploitation
or occupation as soon as possible in the whole area and to effectively enforce the respect
of ecological, geomorphological, or aesthetic features which have led to its establishment;
and Visitors are allowed to enter, under special
conditions, for inspirational, educative, cultural, and recreative purposes.In 1971,
these criteria were further expanded upon leading to more clear and defined benchmarks
to evaluate a national park. These include:
Minimum size of 1,000 hectares within zones in which protection of nature takes precedence
Statutory legal protection Budget and staff sufficient to provide sufficient
effective protection Prohibition of exploitation of natural resources
(including the development of dams) qualified by such activities as sport, hunting, fishing,
the need for management, facilities, etc.While the term national park is now defined by the
IUCN, many protected areas in many countries are called national park even when they correspond
to other categories of the IUCN Protected Area Management Definition, for example:
Swiss National Park, Switzerland: IUCN Ia - Strict Nature Reserve
Everglades National Park, United States: IUCN Ib - Wilderness Area
Victoria Falls National Park, Zimbabwe: IUCN III - National Monument
Vitosha National Park, Bulgaria: IUCN IV - Habitat Management Area
New Forest National Park, United Kingdom: IUCN V - Protected Landscape
Etniko Ygrotopiko Parko Delta Evrou, Greece: IUCN VI - Managed Resource Protected AreaWhile
national parks are generally understood to be administered by national governments (hence
the name), in Australia national parks are run by state governments and predate the Federation
of Australia; similarly, national parks in the Netherlands are administered by the provinces.
In Canada, there are both national parks operated by the federal government and provincial or
territorial parks operated by the provincial and territorial governments, although nearly
all are still national parks by the IUCN definition.In many countries, including Indonesia, the Netherlands,
and the United Kingdom, national parks do not adhere to the IUCN definition, while some
areas which adhere to the IUCN definition are not designated as national parks.
== History ==
In 1810, the English poet William Wordsworth described the Lake District as a sort of national
property, in which every man has a right and interest who has an eye to perceive and a
heart to enjoy. The painter George Catlin, in his travels
through the American West, wrote during the 1830s that the Native Americans in the United
States might be preserved (by some great protecting policy of government) ...in a magnificent
park ...A nation's Park, containing man and beast, in all the wild and freshness of their
nature's beauty!
The first effort by the U.S. Federal government to set aside such protected lands was on 20
April 1832, when President Andrew Jackson signed legislation that the 22nd United States
Congress had enacted to set aside four sections of land around what is now Hot Springs, Arkansas,
to protect the natural, thermal springs and adjoining mountainsides for the future disposal
of the U.S. government. It was known as Hot Springs Reservation, but no legal authority
was established. Federal control of the area was not clearly established until 1877.
John Muir is today referred to as the "Father of the National Parks" due to his work in
Yosemite. He published two influential articles in The Century Magazine, which formed the
base for the subsequent legislation.President Abraham Lincoln signed an Act of Congress
on 1 July 1864, ceding the Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of giant sequoias (later
becoming Yosemite National Park) to the state of California. According to this bill, private
ownership of the land in this area was no longer possible. The state of California was
designated to manage the park for "public use, resort, and recreation". Leases were
permitted for up to ten years and the proceeds were to be used for conservation and improvement.
A public discussion followed this first legislation of its kind and there was a heated debate
over whether the government had the right to create parks. The perceived mismanagement
of Yosemite by the Californian state was the reason why Yellowstone at its establishment
six years later was put under national control.
In 1872, Yellowstone National Park was established as the United States' first national park,
being also the world's first national park. In some European and Asian countries, however,
national protection and nature reserves already existed, such as a part of Forest of Fontainebleau
(France, 1861).Yellowstone was part of a federally governed territory. With no state government
that could assume stewardship of the land so the federal government took on direct responsibility
for the park, the official first national park of the United States. The combined effort
and interest of conservationists, politicians and the Northern Pacific Railroad ensured
the passage of enabling legislation by the United States Congress to create Yellowstone
National Park. Theodore Roosevelt and his group of conservationists, the Boone and Crockett
Club, were already an active campaigners, and so influential, as good stump speakers
were highly necessary in the pre-telecommunications era, was highly influential in convincing
fellow Republicans and big business to back the bill. Yellowstone National Park soon played
a pivotal role in the conservation of these national treasures, as it was suffering at
the hands of poachers and others who stood at the ready to pillage what they could from
the area. Theodore Roosevelt and his newly formed Boone and Crockett Club successfully
took the lead in protecting Yellowstone National Park from this plight, resulting in laws designed
to conserve the natural resources in Yellowstone and other parks under the Government's purview.
American Pulitzer Prize-winning author Wallace Stegner wrote:
National parks are the best idea we ever had. Absolutely American, absolutely democratic,
they reflect us at our best rather than our worst.
In his book Dispossessing the Wilderness: Indian Removal and the Making of the National
Parks, Mark David Spence made the point that in order to create these uninhabited spaces,
the United States first had to disposess the Indians who were living in them.
Even with the creation of Yellowstone, Yosemite, and nearly 37 other national parks and monuments,
another 44 years passed before an agency was created in the United States to administer
these units in a comprehensive way – the U.S. National Park Service (NPS). The 64th
United States Congress passed the National Park Service Organic Act, which President
Woodrow Wilson signed into law on 25 August 1916. Of the 418 sites managed by the National
Park Service of the United States, only 60 carry the designation of National Park.
Following the idea established in Yellowstone, there soon followed parks in other nations.
In Australia, the Royal National Park was established just south of Sydney on 26 April
1879, becoming the world's second official national park (actually the 3rd: Mackinac
National Park in Michigan was created in 1875 as a national park but was later transferred
to the state's authority in 1895, thus losing its official "national park" status). Rocky
Mountain National Park became Canada's first national park in 1885. Argentina became the
third country in the Americas to create a national park system, with the creation of
the Nahuel Huapi National Park in 1934, through the initiative of Francisco Moreno. New Zealand
established Tongariro National Park in 1887. In Europe, the first national parks were a
set of nine parks in Sweden in 1909, followed by the Swiss National Park in 1914. The UK
waited until 1951 for the designation of its first national park, The Peak District National
Park which sits at the southern end of the Pennine Hills surrounded by industrial cities.
This followed perhaps 70 years of pressure for greater public access to the landscape.
By the end of the decade a further 9 national parks had been designated. Europe has some
359 national parks as of 2010. Africa's first national park was established in 1925 when
Albert I of Belgium designated an area of what is now Democratic Republic of Congo centred
on the Virunga Mountains as the Albert National Park (since renamed Virunga National Park).
In 1973, Mount Kilimanjaro was classified as a National Park and was opened to public
access in 1977. In 1926, the government of South Africa designated Kruger National Park
as the nation's first national park, although it was an expansion of the earlier Sabie Game
Reserve established in 1898 by President Paul Kruger of the old South African Republic,
after whom the park was named. After World War II, national parks were founded all over
the world. The Vanoise National Park in the Alps was the first French national park, created
in 1963 after public mobilization against a touristic project.
The world's first national park service was established 19 May 1911, in Canada. The Dominion
Forest Reserves and Parks Act placed the dominion parks under the administration of the Dominion
Park Branch (now Parks Canada). The branch was established to "protect sites of natural
wonder" to provide a recreational experience, centered on the idea of the natural world
providing rest and spiritual renewal from the urban setting. Canada now has the largest
protected area in the world with 377,000 km² of national park space. In 1989, the Qomolangma
National Nature Preserve (QNNP) was created to protect 3.381 million hectares on the north
slope of Mount Everest in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. This national park is the
first major global park to have no separate warden and protection staff—all of its management
being done through existing local authorities, allowing a lower cost basis and a larger geographical
coverage (in 1989 when created, it was the largest protected area in Asia). It includes
four of the six highest mountains Everest, Lhotse, Makalu, and Cho Oyu. The QNNP is contiguous
to four Nepali national parks, creating a transborder conservation area equal in size
to Switzerland. National parks
== Economic ramifications ==
Countries with a large nature-based tourism industry, such as Costa Rica, often experience
a huge economic effect on park management as well as the economy of the country as a
whole.
=== Tourism ===
Tourism to national parks has increased considerably over time. In Costa Rica for example, a megadiverse
country, tourism to parks has increased by 400% from 1985 to 1999. The term national
park is perceived as a brand name that is associated with nature-based tourism and it
symbolizes a "high quality natural environment with a well-designed tourist infrastructure".
=== Staff ===
The duties of a park ranger are to supervise, manage, and/or perform work in the conservation
and use of Federal park resources. This involves functions such as park conservation; natural,
historical, and cultural resource management; and the development and operation of interpretive
and recreational programs for the benefit of the visiting public. Park rangers also
have fire fighting responsibilities and execute search and rescue missions. Activities also
include heritage interpretation to disseminate information to visitors of general, historical,
or scientific information. Management of resources such as wildlife, lakeshores, seashores, forests,
historic buildings, battlefields, archeological properties, and recreation areas are also
part of the job of a park ranger. Since the establishment of the National Park Service
in the US in 1916, the role of the park ranger has shifted from merely being a custodian
of natural resources to include several activities that are associated with law enforcement.
They control traffic and investigate violations, complaints, trespass/encroachment, and accidents.
== See also