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National park

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For other uses, see National park (disambiguation).

An elephant safari through the Jaldapara National Park in West Bengal, India
The Teide National Park in Tenerife, Spain

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.[1] An international organization, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and its World Commission on Protected Areas, 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,[2] although Yellowstone was not gazetted as a national park. The first officially designated national park was Mackinac Island, gazetted in 1875. Australia's Royal National Park, established in 1879, was the world's second officially established national park.[3] In 1891 ownership of Mackinac Island was transferred to the State of Michigan and national park status was consequently lost.[4] As a result Australia's Royal National Park is either the oldest or second oldest national park now in existence.[4][5][6]

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.[7]

National parks are almost always open to visitors.[citation needed] Most national parks provide outdoor recreation and camping opportunities[citation needed] 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.[citation needed]

Definitions

Manuel Antonio National Park in Costa Rica was listed by Forbes as one of the world's 12 most beautiful national parks.[8]
Schiermonnikoog National Park, Netherlands

In 1969, the IUCN declared a national park to be a relatively large area with the following defining characteristics:[9]

  • 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, 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:[10]

While 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.[11] 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.[11]

History

Template:Globalize/North America

The United States in 1872. When Yellowstone was established, Wyoming, Montana and Idaho were territories, not states. For this reason, the federal government had to assume responsibility for the land, hence the creation of the national park.

In 1835, the English poet William Wordsworth described the Lake District as a[12]

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[13]

(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 any government[citation needed] to set aside such protected lands was in the United States, on April 20, 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.[original research?][14][failed verification][15][failed verification] It was known as Hot Springs Reservation, but no legal authority was established. Federal control of the area was not clearly established until 1877.[14]

Yosemite Valley, Yosemite National Park, in California

John Muir is today referred to as the "Father of the National Parks" due to his work in Yosemite.[16] He published two influential articles in The Century Magazine, which formed the base for the subsequent legislation.[17][18]

The next effort by any government[citation needed] to set aside such protected lands was again in the United States, when President Abraham Lincoln signed an Act of Congress on July 1, 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. [19][20]

Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming; Yellowstone was the first national park in the world.
Los Cardones National Park in Salta province, Argentina

In 1872, Yellowstone National Park was established as the United States' first national park,[21] being also the world's first national park. In some European countries, however, national protection and nature reserves already existed, such as Drachenfels (Germany, 1822) and a part of Forest of Fontainebleau (France, 1861).[22]

When news of the natural wonders of the Yellowstone were first promulgated, the land was part of a federally governed territory. Unlike Yosemite, there was 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. It took the combined effort and interest of conservationists, politicians and especially businesses—namely, the Northern Pacific Railroad, whose route through Montana would greatly benefit by the creation of this new tourist attraction—to ensure the passage of that landmark enabling legislation by the United States Congress to create Yellowstone National Park. Theodore Roosevelt, already an active campaigner 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.

American Pulitzer Prize-winning author Wallace Stegner wrote:[23]

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.[24]

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). Businessman Stephen Mather and his journalist partner Robert Sterling Yard pushed hardest for the creation of the NPS, writing then-Secretary of the Interior Franklin Knight Lane about such a need and spearheading a large publicity campaign for their movement. Lane invited Mather to come to Washington, DC to work with him to draft and see passage of the National Park Service Organic Act, which the 64th United States Congress enacted and which President Woodrow Wilson signed into law on August 25, 1916. Of the 432 sites managed by the National Park Service of the United States, only 59 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 in 1879, becoming the world's second official national park (actually 3rd, Mackinac National Park in Michigan was created in 1875). Rocky Mountain National Park became Canada's first national park in 1885. New Zealand established Tongariro National Park in 1887. In Europe the first national parks were a set of nine parks in Sweden in 1909; Europe has some 359 national parks as of 2010.[citation needed] 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.[25] 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 May 19, 1911, in Canada.[26] The Dominion Forest Reserves and Parks Act placed the dominion parks under the administration of Dominion Park Branch (now Parks Canada). The branch was established to "protect sites of natural wonder" to provide a recreational experience, centred on the idea of the natural world providing rest and spiritual renewal from the urban setting.[27] Canada now has the largest protected area in the world with 377,000 km² of national park space.[28] 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.[29]

Biodiversity and other objects of protection

Biodiversity

Main article: biodiversity

Marine national parks

Scientific studies in national parks

The ten largest national parks in the world

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.[30]

Tourism

Main article: Ecotourism

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.[31] The term national park is perceived as a brand name that is associated with nature-based tourism and it symbolizes "high quality natural environment and well-design tourism infrastructure".[32]

Staff

Main article: Park ranger

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 responsibilites 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 [33] 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.[34] They control traffic and investigate violations, complaints, trespass/encroachment, and accidents. [35]

See also

References

  1. ^ Europarc Federation (eds.) 2009, Living Parks, 100 Years of National Parks in Europe, Oekom Verlag, Munchen
  2. ^ The Act
  3. ^ "National parks". Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts. Australian Government. 31 July 2007. Retrieved 2 November 2014.
  4. ^ a b Kim Allen Scott, 2011 "Robertson's Echo The Conservation Ethic in the Establishment of Yellowstone and Royal National Parks" Yellowstone Science 19:3
  5. ^ http://pinkava.asu.edu/starcentral/microscope/portal.php?pagetitle=getcollection&collectionID=127
  6. ^ Rodney Harrison, 2012 "Heritage: Critical approaches" Routledge
  7. ^ "History of the National Parks". Association of National Park Authorities. Retrieved 12 November 2012.
  8. ^ Jane Levere (29 August 2011). "The World's Most Beautiful National Parks". Forbes. Retrieved 4 October 2011.
  9. ^ Gulez, Sumer (1992). A method of evaluating areas for national park status.
  10. ^ European Environment Agency Protected areas in Europe – an overview In: EEA Report No 5/2012 Kopenhagen: 2012 ISBN 978-92-9213-329-0 ISSN 1725-9177 pdf doi=10.2800/55955
  11. ^ a b Gissibl, B., S. Höhler and P. Kupper, 2012, Civilizing Nature, National Parks in Global Historical Perspective, Berghahn, Oxford
  12. ^ Wordsworth, William (1835). A guide through the district of the lakes in the north of England with a description of the scenery, &c. for the use of tourists and residents (5th ed.). Kendal, England: Hudson and Nicholson. p. 88.
  13. ^ Catlin, George (1841). Letters and Notes on the manners, customs, and condition of the North American Indians: written during eight years' travel amongst the wildest tribes of Indians in North America in 1832, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, and 39. Vol. 1. Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly, London: Published by the author. pp. 261–262.
  14. ^ a b Shugart, Sharon (2004). "Hot Springs of Arkansas Through the Years: A Chronology of Events" (PDF). National Park Service. Retrieved 30 March 2008.
  15. ^ Peters, Richard, ed. (1866). "Twenty-Second Congress, Session 1, Chap. 70: An Act authorizing the governor of the territory of Arkansas to lease the salt springs, in said territory, and for other purposes (April 20, 1832)". [[United States Statutes at Large|The Public Statutes at Large of the United States of America]] from the Organization of the Government in 1789, to March 3, 1845, Treaties, and Proclamations of the United States of America from December 1863, to December 1865 (PDF). Vol. 4. Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown. p. 505. {{cite book}}: URL–wikilink conflict (help)
  16. ^ Miller, Barbara Kiely (2008). John Muir. Gareth Stevens. p. 10. ISBN 0836883187.
  17. ^ John Muir. Features of the Proposed Yosemite National Park In: The Century Magazine, Vol. XL. September, 1890. No. 5
  18. ^ John Muir. The Treasures of the Yosemite The Century Magazine, Vol. XL. August, 1890. No. 4
  19. ^ Adam Wesley Dean. Natural Glory in the Midst of War: The Establishment of Yosemite State Park In: Abstract. Civil War History Volume 56, Number 4, December 2010 pp. 386-419 | 10.1353/cwh.2010.0008
  20. ^ Sanger, George P., ed. (1866). "Thirty-Eighth Congress, Session 1, Chap. 184: An Act authorizing a Grant to the State of California of the "Yo-Semite Valley" and of the Land embracing the "Mariposa Big Tree Grove" (June 30, 1864)". [[38th United States Congress]], Session 1, 1864. In: [[United States Statutes at Large|The Statutes at Large]], Treaties, and Proclamations of the United States of America from December 1863, to December 1865 (PDF). Vol. 13. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. p. 325. {{cite book}}: URL–wikilink conflict (help)
  21. ^ Mangan, Elizabeth U. Yellowstone, the First National Park from Mapping the National Parks. Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division.
  22. ^ Kimberly A. Jones, Simon R. Kelly, Sarah Kennel, Helga Kessler-Aurisch, In the forest of Fontainebleau: painters and photographers from Corot to Monet, National Gallery of Art, 2008, p.23
  23. ^ "Famous Quotes Concerning the National Parks: Wallace Stegner, 1983". Discover History. National Park Service. 16 January 2003. Retrieved 24 October 2011.
  24. ^ Dispossessing the Wilderness: Indian Removal and the Making of the National Parks. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999 : Review by Colin Fisher, H-Environment, August 2000
  25. ^ "Kilimanjaro: The National Park". Private Kilimanjaro: About Kilimanjaro. Private Expeditions, Ltd. 2011. Retrieved 24 October 2011.
  26. ^ Irish, Paul (13 May 2011). "Parks Canada celebrates a century of discovery". Toronto Star. Retrieved 18 May 2011.
  27. ^ "Parks Canada History". Parks Canada. 2 February 2009. Retrieved 30 August 2012.
  28. ^ "Parks Canada". Parks Canada. Retrieved 30 August 2012.
  29. ^ Daniel C. Taylor, Carl E. Taylor, Jesse O. Taylor, Empowerment on an Unstable Planet New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012, Chapter 9
  30. ^ Eagles, Paul F.J. Trends in Park Tourism: Economics, Finance and Management. In: Journal of Sustainable Tourism Volume 10, Issue 2, 2002, p. 134. Doi:10.1080/09669580208667158
  31. ^ Eagles, Paul F.J. Trends in Park Tourism: Economics, Finance and Management. In: Journal of Sustainable Tourism Volume 10, Issue 2, 2002, p. 134. Doi:10.1080/09669580208667158
  32. ^ Eagles, Paul F.J. Trends in Park Tourism: Economics, Finance and Management. In: Journal of Sustainable Tourism Volume 10, Issue 2, 2002, p. 133. Doi:10.1080/09669580208667158
  33. ^ U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Handbook of occupational groups and families. Washington, D.C. January 2008. Page 19. OPM.gov Accessed November 2, 2014.
  34. ^ R Meadows ; D L Soden In: National Park Ranger Attitudes and Perceptions Regarding Law Enforcement Issues. Abstract. Justice Professional Volume:3 Issue:1 Dated:(Spring 1988) Pages:70-93
  35. ^ U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Handbook of occupational groups and families. Washington, D.C. January 2008. Page 19. OPM.gov Accessed November 2, 2014.

Further reading

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for National parks.
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