A national park is a portion of territory which is classified by decree inside which the fauna, the Flore and the Natural environment in general is protected from the action of the man. He is generally selected when conservation of fauna, the flora, the ground, the basement, the atmosphere, water and, in general, of a natural environment presents a special interest and that it is important to preserve this medium against any effect of natural degradation and to withdraw it from any artificial intervention likely to deteriorate the aspect of it… . Their interest is thus not tourist (generally, to see safaris), it lies especially in the Biodiversité of which they conceal each one a share; for example, the Mercantour with the wolf, the Everglades with the Manatee or the National park Kruger with the white Rhinoceros…

History

The first approach of the idea of national park was formulated with the the United States of America in 1832 by the American painter George Catlin (1796-1872). Of return of a voyage in the West, he proposes a policy of protection by the government of a “park containing men and animals in all the wild beauty of their nature”.

The first reserve is born with the the United States where Abraham Lincoln, the June 30th 1864, declares inalienable public ground the valley of the Yosemite in California. It is however Yellowstone, with horse on the States of the Idaho, the Montana and the Wyoming, which must be regarded as first national park in the world in 1871. The second was the royal National park Australian created in 1879 and then Yosemite having to wait until 1890 to have the same regulation.

In the world

In 2003, the list of the the United Nations counted more than 100.000 protected areas in the world, including 3881 national parks (category II of UICN). Some are so exceptional that they were classified with on the Liste of the world heritage of UNESCO like the National park of Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

Surface

The surface of the national parks is very variable oscillating between 1300 ha (13 km ²) for the National park of Thayata in Austria with more than 2 million hectares is 20000 km ² (350 X 60 km) for the National park Kruger in South Africa.

The national parks alone represent a surface higher than 4,4 million km ²

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