A national park is a portion of land that is classified by decree within which the fauna, the flora and the natural environment in general are protected from the action of man. It is usually chosen when the conservation of wildlife, flora, soil, subsoil, atmosphere, water and, in general, a natural environment has a special interest and importance of preserve the environment against any adverse natural degradation and to avoid any artificial intervention may alter the appearance .... Their interest is not tourist (generally, see safari), it lies in the biodiversity they contain each one hand for example, the Mercantour with the wolf, the Everglades with the manatee or the Kruger National Park with the white rhino ...
History
The first approach of the national park idea has been formulated with the United States in 1832 by the American painter George Catlin (1796-1872). Back from a trip west, he proposed a policy of protection by the government of a "park containing man and beast in the beauty of wild nature."
The first subject was born in the U.S. where Abraham Lincoln on 30 June 1864, declares public land inalienable Valley Yosemite in California. But it is Yellowstone, straddling the states of the Idaho, from Montana and Wyoming, which should be considered first national park in the world. It was created by the Act of 1 March 1872. The second was the Royal National Park, Australia established in 1879 and then to Yosemite until 1890 to have the same regulations.
More recently, some national parks for protection activities particularly noteworthy, have graduated from the European Council of Europe. With the European area, the concept of transfrontier park comprising the Mercantour National Park and "Parco naturale delle Alpi marittime" has thus fulfilled.
Worldwide
In 2003, the list UN had over 100 000 protected areas worldwide, including 3 881 national parks (category II of the IUCN) Some are so exceptional that they were classified on the World Heritage List of the UNESCO as the Kilimanjaro National Park in Tanzania.
Area
The national park area is very variable ranging from 550 ha (5.5 km 2) for the National Park islands Ehotilés in Côte d'Ivoire more than 2.2275 million hectares or 22 275km 2 for Parc national d 'Etosha in Namibia.
National parks alone represent an area exceeding 4.4 million km 2 slightly more than the size of the European Union.
Management
All national parks in the world are like-minded investors and three types of missions: protecting nature, support activities and manage traditional public attendance. Indeed all national parks and, in general, nature reserves do not contain exclusively wild and untouched land.
In the West, these parks spanning several municipalities or counties, it is usual that these reserves "home" also one or several human populations has been around long before the establishment of national parks.
Elsewhere, they try to avoid it, the park can still be crossed by a highway (such as Braulio Carrillo National Park in Costa Rica) or be partially operated by farmers or companies (eg deforestation in the biosphere reserve Peten in Guatemala) or by oil companies (eg rainforest of Yasina in Brazil). Quite the challenge must address managing these territories.
Some parks are closely monitored, others are so large that this work is impossible. This is particularly the case in Zimbabwe. Known particularly for its famous Victoria Falls, one of the seven wonders of nature (107 m in height, 1700 m long, for a throughput of more than 9000 m 3 / second), Southern African countries has created national parks to protect endangered species such as rhinoceros, elephant and buffalo which this territory is one of the last sanctuaries.
The authorities in charge of maintaining these reserves educate the population; guides, rangers, veterinarians and researchers to explain to residents and visitors the benefits of preserving these species and the risks they incur poachers kill these animals or try to sell them. But the struggle of these men and women of good will is sometimes disproportionate to the magnitude of the task.
Thus, the Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe covers 14 620 km2, one of the largest in the world. He gained national park status in 1930. But some sectors extend over several thousand hectares and are monitored by five guards, moving on foot addition ... However, this park contains the largest concentration of animals with 107 species of mammals and 450 species of birds. Today, although the last white rhino was killed, officially, in 1995, its population has declined further and is threatened with extinction. The problem of poaching, because the rhino is hunted for its horn to alleged aphrodisiac qualities so fond of Asian population and especially China.
National Parks in Canada
Canada has 42 national parks covering 2.2% of the land area.
National Parks in Quebec
Quebec has no fewer than 22 national parks, plus a marine park (Parc marin du Saguenay-Saint-Laurent) managed jointly by Quebec and Canada. The first national park of Quebec was created in 1979, is the Parc du Mont-Orford, located in the Eastern Townships. The latest is the National Park Pingualuit located in Nunavik, which was created in 2004 but only opened in 2007 by Prime Minister Jean Charest, in the Inuit village of Kangiksujuaq.
Pursuant to Article 5 of the Act on the Conservation of Natural Heritage, Quebec has a register of protected areas which collects data (name, size, location, status (s) Protection, Department or government agency responsible and classification categories recognized by the International Union for Nature) on protected areas in Quebec. According to the Ministry of Sustainable Development, Environment and Parks, the Quebec network of protected areas using more than 20 different legal designations, National Parks are one of these designations.
According to the update the most recent register (August 2007), 4.81% of the land area is reserved for protected areas. The government target for 2005 was 8%.
National Parks in the U.S. .
There are 380 national parks and monuments in the United States that receive a total of 380 million visitors per year
National Parks in Indonesia
There are about 320 national parks in Indonesia.