<\/p>
Marloes is part of Pembrokeshire National Park in Wales <\/i>\u00a9\u00a0Loop Images \/ UIG \/ Getty<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n What is a\u00a0national park?<\/b><\/p>\n That depends on where you are, because each country designates its national parks differently. There is, however, an official definition agreed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN): in a nutshell, it is a large, naturally beautiful, ecologically rich area, relatively unaltered by people, with legal protection for its wildlife and habitats, that promotes education and recreation. The best national parks are hugely popular \u2013 America\u2019s alone had a staggering 82.8 million visitors in 2016 \u2013 and protect some of the most important areas of biodiversity on Earth.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n When was the first national park set up?<\/b><\/p>\n Protected areas of one kind or another have existed for at least 2,000 years, but national parks are much more recent. Yellowstone, established in 1872, famously claims to be the world\u2019s first. However, there are other legitimate claims to the title \u2013 most notably Bogd Khan Uul, established in Mongolia in 1778 (it\u2019s never been a national park by name, but ticks all the right boxes). Now, there are 6,555 \u2018official\u2019 national parks around the world, in nearly 100 countries. They range in size from tiny 22-acre Moyenne Island, in the Seychelles, to the Northeast Greenland National Park \u2013 at 971,000km2, four times the size of the UK.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Are they ALL\u00a0well protected?<\/b><\/p>\n Some are, many are not. They are increasingly being downgraded, reduced in size or eliminated altogether. Their precious land is being taken away or altered to accommodate mining, logging and other damaging commercial activities, or to alleviate pressure for land caused by growing human populations.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n What about the UK?<\/b><\/p>\n Our first \u2013 the Peak District National Park \u2013 was created in 1951. Now there are 10 in England covering 9.3% of the land area; two in Scotland covering 7.2%; and three in Wales covering 19.9%. Northern Ireland is currently considering its first, in the Mourne Mountains. They include well-known and popular places such as the Pembrokeshire Coast, Dartmoor, the New Forest,\u00a0the Yorkshire Dales and\u00a0the Cairngorms.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n That sounds good?<\/b><\/p>\n Not really. Unfortunately, none of them meets IUCN\u2019s standards for a national park. Unlike national parks in America, for example \u2013 which are owned by the nation and\u00a0 strictly prohibit activities such as hunting, livestock grazing, mining and logging (though there are changes afoot under the Trump administration) \u2013 ours are neither national, nor parks. Most of the land is privately owned (by a patchwork of individuals, companies, local councils and charities). Everything from grouse shooting and mining to logging and fracking is already permitted, about to be permitted, or actively encouraged. And the parks are full of active livestock farms, villages and even quite substantial towns (no fewer than 112,000 people live in South Downs National Park, for example).<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n What about wildlife?<\/b><\/p>\n The truth is that our national parks are not chunks of untouched wilderness set aside and protected for their wildlife and habitats. In fact, they fall into a different IUCN category altogether \u2013 protected areas that are \u2018managed mainly for landscape\/seascape protection and recreation\u2019. Time and again, commercial considerations are given priority over environmental concerns. And most of our national parks have now lost any favourable conservation status they ever had.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n What of the future?<\/b><\/p>\n Many people argue that the national park system in the UK needs to reinvent itself, or at least move into a new phase. It is in an ideal position to protect large-scale ecological processes and, more than that, should be\u00a0at the forefront of restoring\u00a0the wildlife and wild\u00a0places that we have so comprehensively lost.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p><\/body><\/html>\n By Megan Shersby Published: Thursday, 14 April 2022 at 12:00 am Marloes is part of Pembrokeshire National Park in Wales \u00a9\u00a0Loop Images \/ UIG \/ Getty \u00a0 What is a\u00a0national park? That depends on where you are, because each country designates its national parks differently. There is, however, an official definition agreed by the International […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":15762,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"3"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/04\/what-are-national-parks-and-what-do-they-protect.jpg",623,312,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/04\/what-are-national-parks-and-what-do-they-protect-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/04\/what-are-national-parks-and-what-do-they-protect-300x150.jpg",300,150,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/04\/what-are-national-parks-and-what-do-they-protect.jpg",623,312,false],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/04\/what-are-national-parks-and-what-do-they-protect.jpg",623,312,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/04\/what-are-national-parks-and-what-do-they-protect.jpg",623,312,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/04\/what-are-national-parks-and-what-do-they-protect.jpg",623,312,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Megan Shersby Published: Thursday, 14 April 2022 at 12:00 am Marloes is part of Pembrokeshire National Park in Wales \u00a9\u00a0Loop Images \/ UIG \/ Getty \u00a0 What is a\u00a0national park? That depends on where you are, because each country designates its national parks differently. There is, however, an official definition agreed by the International…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/15761"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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