Other Geographic Features Codexery

National park

Preserving wild nature for posterity and national pride.

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Government-owned and protected land, which can be natural, semi-natural, or developed, is what a national park constitutes.[1]

Quick Facts

Iucn definition category
Category II

Facts from the source article.

Key facts and history

In 1969, the IUCN declared a national park to be a relatively large area with defining characteristics.[2] The IUCN defined "National Park" as its Category II type of protected areas.[3] Europe has over 400 national parks as of 2026.[4] The Tobago Main Ridge Forest Reserve, established in 1776, and the area surrounding Bogd Khan Uul Mountain in Mongolia, from 1778, are regarded as the oldest legally protected areas.[5]

Covering 972,000 km² and established in 1974, Northeast Greenland National Park is the largest national park that meets the IUCN definition.[6] The oldest national park service globally is Parks Canada, which was founded on May 19, 1911.[5] President Woodrow Wilson signed the Organic Act on August 25, 1916, which created the U.S. National Park Service.[7] The Peak District National Park, designated in 1951, was the United Kingdom's first national park.[8]

What the cited sources add

The U.S. National Park Service manages 433 individual units covering more than 85 million acres across all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and US territories.[9] Many related areas are not units of the National Park Service and are managed by other government agencies or non-government organizations.[9] Tourism in national parks can have negative environmental impacts, including habitat degradation, pollution, soil erosion, and disturbances to wildlife.[10] According to critics, removing people from national parks reinforces the idea that nature can only be safeguarded when humans are absent, which strengthens the nature–culture divide.[11]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "National park" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Europarc Federation (eds.) 2009, Living Parks, 100 Years of National Parks in Europe, Oekom Verlag, München (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "National park" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Gulez, Sumer (1992). A method of evaluating areas for national park status. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "National park" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Category II: National Park", IUCN, 5 February 2016 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "National park" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Europe's Parks", National Parks Of Europe (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "National park" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Evolution of the Conservation Movement, 1850-1920", American Memory - Library of Congress; Report of the Superintendent of Yellowstone National Park for the Year 1872 , 43rd Congress, 3rd Session, ex. doc. 35, quoting Department of Interior letter of ; "Yellowstone National Park", UNESCO; "Tobago Main Ridge Forest Reserve", UNESCO, 17 August 2011; Hardy, U., "The 10 Oldest National Parks in the World", The CultureTrip, 9 April 2017; Bonnett, A., "The Geography of Nostalgia: Global and Local Perspectives on Modernity and Loss", Routledge, en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "National park" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "1993 United Nations list of national parks and protected areas: = Liste des Nations Unies des parcs nationaux et des aires protégées 1993 = Lista de las Naciones Unidas de parques nacionales y areas protegidas 1993", IU (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "National park" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "National Park System (U.S. National Park Service)", 2019-05-17 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "National park" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "History of our National Park", Peak District National Park (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. "National Park System (U.S. National Park Service)", 2019-05-17. facts only, no text reused. nps.gov
  10. Wikipedia, "National park" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Environmental Impact of Tourism in National Parks", USA National Parks Info (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  11. Wikipedia, "National park" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Claus, "Drawing the Sea Near", University of Minnesota Press, 2020-11-03 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article National park (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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