Advertising on the portal

What is a national park? There are four types of national parks in Russia

The world's first natural reserve in the modern sense, or national park, was established on March 1, 1872 in the USA. Its creators were motivated by purely aesthetic motives: not long before, the expedition of naturalist Ferdinand Hayden discovered thousands of amazing geysers, picturesque waterfalls, canyons, lakes and many other beauties and wonders in the Yellowstone River valley in the wild and uninhabited part of Wyoming. The photographs of William Jackson and especially the colorful landscapes of Thomas Moran attached to Hayden's report made such an impression on Congress that they decided to preserve these lands forever in their original form. Why did he establish a new institution that has never existed anywhere - a national park?

It seems incredible that in the era of undivided dominance of the pathos of “conquest wildlife“The vast territory was taken out of economic use only because of its beauty. But no one laid claim to these lands at that time - there was much more free space in the American West than there were people willing to develop it. On the other side, young state, which had not yet turned a century old, desperately needed its own sights and monuments - if not historical, then natural. The creation of Yellowstone Park set a major precedent: for the first time, preserving undisturbed nature was not possible. by-product achieving other goals (fulfilling religious requirements or saving valuable resources for their subsequent use), but the independent and main goal of preserving the territory.


For some time, Yellowstone Park was the only one of its kind, but already in the 1890s it had counterparts in the United States - Sequoia and Yosemite national parks. Even earlier, in 1885-1886, the first national parks were created in neighboring Canada. In the same era, similar reserves began to appear in the Asian and African colonies of European states: Gunung Gede Pangrango in Indonesia (1889), the South African national parks of Saint Lucia, Umfolozi, Hluhluwe (1897) and Sabi (1898), now known as Kruger National Park. And in the first decade of the twentieth century, this form of nature conservation appeared in Europe. In 1902, the Dobrach reserve was created in Austria-Hungary, and in 1909, the Abisko, Sarek and Harpyttan reserves were created in Sweden.

All of these parks (and many others that arose in the 1910-1930s) were organized on approximately the same principle as Yellowstone - they included areas with picturesque landscapes and a large number natural attractions. The main task of such parks was to provide citizens with access to these beauties, including in the future. That is, from the very beginning, mass visits to parks by the public were assumed, and the naturalness and undisturbed nature of natural ecosystems were in best case scenario one of the many qualities taken into account. Sometimes they did without them altogether. For example, the task of the mentioned Swedish national park "Garpyttan" was to preserve not the natural, but the traditional agricultural landscape. In modern domestic nomenclature, this corresponds not to a natural reserve, but to a historical and cultural reserve.


In Russia, attempts to preserve undisturbed natural areas began to be undertaken around the same time, but their initiators set themselves somewhat different goals. If in most developed countries hunting had turned into a sport for wealthy people by the beginning of the 20th century, in Russia the hunting of fur-bearing animals remained a serious sector of the economy, which employed many professional hunters. And by the 1900s, even the endless Siberian taiga was unable to provide a sustainable “harvest.” Hunters have previously had to temporarily exclude some areas from hunting, turning them into natural game nurseries. The new situation required a sharp increase in the size of such zones and provision of protection for them. Unlike previous small reserves, such territories began to be called nature reserves. For their creation and protection, an agreement between the fishermen themselves was no longer enough - the state had to ensure the conservation. Work on such projects was carried out on the Angara, in the Sayan Mountains, in southern Primorye, but before its collapse Russian Empire managed to create only one reserve - Barguzinsky, officially established on January 20, 1917. However, a number of projects prepared at that time were later implemented by the Soviet government.

RUSSIA'S SPECIAL PATH

Somewhat earlier, in the early 1890s, the famous Russian soil scientist Vasily Dokuchaev, who watched with horror the disappearance of the last remnants of the European black soil steppes, proposed preserving several surviving areas of untouched steppe as a standard. Of course, for this it was necessary to provide them with complete immunity for all eternity.

Unfortunately, “eternity” turned out to be too short: none of the “scientific reserve sites” created by Dokuchaev himself in the Voronezh, Donetsk and Kherson steppes various reasons did not even live to see the First World War. During the years of revolution and Civil War the same fate befell the plots created according to the Dokuchaev model on the estate of Countess Panina in the Saratov province and in the famous Askania-Nova - the estate of the Falz-Fein barons, which they turned into a natural park.

However, the real reason the failure of this project ahead of its time was not at all the instability of the Russian economic and political situation. Dokuchaev was fatally mistaken in scale: the area of ​​his “steppe standards” was only a few tens of hectares. Today we know that the steppe can exist sustainably only when herds of wild ungulates, which need hundreds of square kilometers to live, graze in it.

But even if Dokuchaev knew about this, he still would not be able to change anything: in the world there were no longer such expanses of the grass sea, nor its four-legged guardians. The last tour died back in 1627. And the wild tarpan last time met a man in the wild several years before the foundation of the Dokuchaev sites.


Nevertheless, it was Dokuchaev’s ideas of a model reserve (in modern terminology - an environmental monitoring site), absolute inviolability and constant scientific work as its main task that formed the basis of the ideology of the Soviet reserve business. This did not contradict the idea of ​​the reserve as a natural nursery for game animals, but there could be no mass tourism in such conditions - even the reserve’s employees had the right to be on its territory only for a specific purpose and with the knowledge of the management. This understanding of nature reserves took root only in the USSR - nowhere else in the world did the taking of natural areas under protection imply a complete ban on visiting them.

From a nature conservation point of view, this is very attractive. Much later, some foreign experts even envied Soviet reserves, freed from hordes of tourists and having the opportunity to focus exclusively on the protection and study of flora and fauna. However, in reality, the requirement of “absolute reserve” was, at best, an ideal to be strived for. It was inevitable to build housing, outbuildings, laboratories, etc. on the territory of the reserves. Their employees planted vegetable gardens at their homes and kept livestock. Soviet reserves were not completely closed to visitors either. Even a complete stranger, who showed up without prior agreement and did not represent any organization, was almost never expelled from the reserve if he limited himself to walking around its territory. And some reserves even had official tourist routes, which were very popular. That is, many reserves played the role of those absent from the country national parks.


Deviations from the ideal of “absolute inviolability” were not limited to this. Since the 1920s, experiments on acclimatization have been carried out in the USSR various types animals: muskrat, nutria, American mink and others. As a rule, reserves served as the basis for this work - it was there that batches of “invaders” were released into the wild, the dynamics of their spread were recorded and, if possible, they helped it. At the same time, in the reserves there was a fight against “harmful animals”, primarily wolves. They were not only shot all year round without any restrictions, but also exterminated with the help of traps and poisoned baits - from which not only wolves died. Probably exactly wide application poison in the mid-1950s was the last straw, which completed the extermination of the leopard in the Western Caucasus.

The involvement of nature reserves in the “transformation of nature” was especially intensive in the 1940s and the first half of the 1960s. In the reserves, herbicides were tested, cultivated plants were sown, and experiments were conducted on crossing wild ungulates with livestock. The apotheosis of this policy was the actual destruction of the reserve system in 1951, when their number was reduced by more than half, and total area- more than 11 times.


 THE ROADS CONVERSE

Meanwhile, the concept of national parks was developing in the rest of the world. Already from the 1920s, they gradually began to move from simple restrictions on economic activity to serious scientific work and targeted restoration of rare and endangered species. The pioneer here can be considered the American taxidermist Karl Ekely, who not only achieved the creation of the Alberta National Park in the then Belgian Congo in 1925 to save the last surviving gorillas, but also made the center of the reserve’s activities not tourism, but scientific research. As experience in the parks accumulated, scientific and environmental activities played an increasingly important role in them. The principles of conservation have also changed: the initiative to take certain natural areas under protection increasingly came from scientists. And when choosing a site, everything big role It was not picturesqueness that played a role, but undisturbedness—exactly what guided the creators of Soviet nature reserves.

In the USSR, where the network of nature reserves had been gradually healing its wounds since the 1960s, the view on nature reserves was also changing. Since 1971, national parks have been created in the country. Protective and buffer zones arise around nature reserves, the regime of which is similar to that of a national park. The two concepts of protected natural areas have developed towards each other. The reforms of the 1990s spurred the process of transformation of nature reserves: finding themselves without money and reliable government protection, they were forced to look for new sources of funding. At this time, visitor reception centers, souvenir shops and other attributes of national parks appear in almost all Russian nature reserves.

Today, almost all countries have adopted the point of view according to which a modern reserve should at the same time be a standard natural ecosystems, a refuge for endangered species, a site for regular research, a recreational and educational tourism area and an educational center.  


 RESERVED GLOSSARY

Specially protected natural areas(SPNA)- plots of land, water surface and the airspace above them, where natural complexes and objects are located that have special environmental, scientific, cultural, aesthetic, recreational and health-improving significance and are withdrawn by decisions of government authorities, in whole or in part, from economic use with the establishment of a special protection regime.

Reserve- according to Russian legislation, this is a category of specially protected natural areas of federal significance, completely and indefinitely withdrawn from economic use in order to preserve and study natural processes and phenomena, rare and unique natural systems, plant and animal species. This area is closed to the public.

Reserve- a type of protected area in which (unlike reserves), with limited use natural resources, under protection is not the natural complex as a whole, but only some of its parts: flora or fauna, certain species of animals and plants, or historical, memorial or geological objects.

National Park— Protected natural areas, including natural complexes and objects that have special ecological, historical and aesthetic value, and intended for use for environmental, educational, scientific and cultural purposes, as well as for regulated tourism.

There are four types of national parks in Russia:

OPEN TYPE, where all or almost all of the area is accessible to the public; 

RESORT TYPE— around climatic or balneological resorts, where public access may be partially limited; 

SEMI-CLOSED TYPE, where visitors are not allowed into most of the territory and it operates as a nature reserve;

 
RESERVED NATIONAL PARKS, almost completely closed to tourism and preserved in the interests of science.

RESERVE- a territory in which one species of animals or plants, or a group of species, or an entire natural complex is protected. Thus, the term is largely synonymous with game reserve or nature reserve.

American television channel CNN has ranked the 30 most beautiful national parks in the world. The evaluation criteria were the beauty of nature and picturesque places, safety and hospitality of local residents. The TV channel noted that US parks are not included in the rating.

30 PHOTOS

1. First place in the ranking was given to Iguazu Falls National Park in Argentina. It is believed that the waterfalls on the Iguazu River, surrounded by tropical nature, are one of the most beautiful and spectacular places on Earth. (Photo: REUTERS/Jorge Adorno).
2. Los Glaciares National Park in Argentina took second place in the ranking. 30 percent of the park's territory is covered with ice, which is why it is also called the Patagonian Glacier Park. (Photo: 123 RF).
3. Third place: another National Park of Argentina - Nahuel Huapi, which is located in the Andes at an altitude of 767 meters above sea level. (Photo: 123 RF).
4. Fourth place: Gandoca-Manzanilla National Reserve in Costa Rica.
5. Fifth place in the ranking: Tikal National Park in Guatemala. It includes one of the largest and most famous archaeological sites in the world - the most important center of the Mayan civilization, Tikal. (Photo: 123 RF).
6. Sixth place in the ranking: Rapa Nui National Park, which is located on Easter Island (Chile) and is famous for its stone sculptures- moai. It is believed to be the most geographically remote inhabited island in the world from other islands and lands. (Photo: 123 RF).
7. Seventh place: Torres del Paine National Park located in the Chilean part of Patagonia. According to scientists, the park is 11 million years old. (Photo: 123 RF).
8. Eighth place: Canaima National Park, located in southeast Venezuela. This is where the tallest waterfall in the world, Angel Falls, is located. (Photo: Flickr/Heather Thorkelson)
9. Ninth place: Galapagos Islands National Park in Ecuador. The famous Galapagos tortoises, which give the islands their name, are the longest-living animal record holders - they live for more than two hundred years. (Photo: 123 RF).
10. Tenth place: Cairngorms National Park in Scotland. The park has extensive heathland where birds nest. (Photo: Flickr).
11. Eleventh place: Goreme National Park in Turkey, which is also an open-air museum - there are 350 Byzantine churches carved from the rocks. (Photo: 123 RF).
12. Twelfth place: Tatrzansky or Tatra National Park is the only high-mountain park in Poland, created to protect unique mountain landscapes, flora and fauna. (Photo: Marek Podmokly/ Agencja Gazeta).
13. Thirteenth place: Croatian Plitvice Lakes National Park, which includes 16 beautiful karst lakes connected by waterfalls. (Photo: 123 RF).
14. Fourteenth place: Victoria Falls National Park - located on the Zambezi River in Zambia. (Photo: 123 RF).
15. Fifteenth place: Kruger National Park is the oldest park in South Africa, which is part of the Kruger to the Canyons Biosphere Reserve. (Photo: 123 RF).
16. Sixteenth place: Namib-Naukluft National Park in Namibia. Covering almost 50,000 square kilometers of mostly desert, it is one of the largest protected areas in the world. (Photo: 123 RF).
17. Seventeenth place: Mana Pools National Park in Zimbabwe. Even in the dry season, there is a lot of moisture here, which is very important for the ecosystem and animals. (Photo: Flickr/ninara).
18. Eighteenth place: Murchison Falls National Park in Uganda, on its territory there are many water cascades that waterfowl love. (Photo: 123 RF).
19. Nineteenth place: Halgurd Sakran National Park in Iraq, which includes Mount Halgurd with a height of 3607 meters. (Facebook/press materials).
20. Twentieth place: the deserted Ein Avdat National Park in Israel, which protects the beautiful areas of the canyon, inhabited in the times of the first Christians by monks and Nabateans. (Photo: 123 RF).
21. Twenty-first place: Zhangjiajie National Park in China. This is where the famous movie Avatar was filmed. (Photo: 123 RF).
22. Twenty-second place: Naejangsan National Park in South Korea— it is especially beautiful in autumn. The park is hidden in the Naejangsan Mountains south of Seoul. (Photo: 123 RF).
23. Twenty-third place: Pagsanhan Gorge National Park in the Philippines. It includes the largest waterfalls in the country. According to legend, before the waterfalls appeared, two twins lived in this place. One day, after a severe drought, one of them died, then the second twin climbed high rocks and began to curse the gods, when suddenly a spring began to flow from under his feet, which laid the foundation for the waterfalls. (Photo: 123 RF).
24. Twenty-fourth place: Minneriya National Park in Sri Lanka, whose main pride is its large population of elephants. (Photo: 123 RF).
25. Twenty-fifth place: Sundarbans National Park - a tiger and biosphere reserve in India. (Photo: 123 RF).
26. Twenty-sixth place: Bannerghatta National Park in India. Part of the park is a nature reserve, where more than a hundred species of birds, many mammals (including elephants, bears, leopards) and insects are strictly protected. There is also an animal rescue center here. (Photo: Flickr/Nisha D).
27. Twenty-seventh place: Bandhavgarh National Park, home to the largest population of tigers in all of India. (Photo: 123 RF).
28. Twenty-eighth place: Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park in Australia. The famous red-brown mountain Uluru (Ayers Rock) changes its color depending on the angle of light. (Photo: 123 RF).
29. Twenty-ninth place: Blue Mountains National Park in Australia. The name “Blue Mountains” comes from the blue eucalyptus trees growing on the slopes of the mountains. (Photo: 123 RF).
30. Thirtieth place: Paparoa National Park in New Zealand, the main attraction of which is the pancake limestone cliffs, as well as beautiful caves. (Photo: 123 RF).

Everyone knows what a nature reserve and national parks are. Perhaps they just don’t quite clearly understand the difference between one concept and another. Let's try to figure this out.

What are national parks

To understand what a nature reserve and national parks are, you need to know precise definition these concepts. So, national parks are special natural areas on land or water where human activity is completely or partially prohibited. Main goal- security environment, i.e. preservation of valuable natural complexes, animals and flora. These places are open to free visits by nature lovers and tourists.

In addition to their environmental purposes, they are research institutions and also perform an environmental and educational role. It is important to understand that the territories and individual real estate objects that belong to these natural complexes are of special environmental, aesthetic and historical value for the state. In addition, these are excellent places for organizing international regulated tourism.

All national parks in our country are property Russian Federation. Historical and cultural real estate objects are assigned to them with the right of operational management. The territory of national parks is limited to a protected zone with an orderly regime of environmental management and visits.

What are nature reserves

Nature reserves are distinguished by the fact that not only any economic activity is strictly prohibited on their territories, but also the presence of people there. According to the law of the Russian Federation, these territories are transferred to nature reserves for indefinite use. It is our country that is famous a large number state protected areas, while there are only a few of them in the world.

Nature reserves and national parks of Russia exist in almost all regions, and therefore are distinguished by their specific landscape, unique representatives of flora and fauna, most of which are listed in the Red Book and are carefully protected by the state.

Objectives of the reserve

Nature reserves are objects of federal significance, so funds are allocated annually from the country's budget for their maintenance. and national parks can be understood based on the main tasks they perform. Thus, the objectives of the reserve are:

  • acceptance of all necessary measures to preserve and enhance the biological diversity of protected natural complexes, maintaining them in natural state in protected areas;
  • conducting research work;
  • conducting environmental monitoring, as well as environmental education of the population;
  • providing assistance in training specialists on environmental protection issues;
  • participation in environmental state examination when designing the location of economic and other facilities.

The territories of Russian nature reserves exclude the use of subsoil, water, plants and hunting of animals, since they are of particular value for world science. They are examples of wildlife, typical for a particular region, and contribute to the preservation of the genetic pool of rare representatives of flora and fauna.

Main tasks of national parks

The main objectives of national parks are:

  • preserving the integrity and uniqueness of natural areas and historical and cultural objects located within them;
  • restoration of damaged historical, cultural and natural sites;
  • Creation optimal conditions for regulated tourism and cultural recreation of citizens;
  • practical use of new ones in the field of nature conservation;
  • environmental education.

Nature reserves and national parks are objects of federal significance, financed from funds allocated from the federal budget.

Natural parks

What a reserve and national parks are is clear. And how do the so-called natural parks? The fact is that in their status and tasks they are similar to national ones. The main difference is that they do not have federal status and are under the jurisdiction of the republic, territory or region in which they are located. Accordingly, financing is provided from the local budget. For example, in the Urals “Taganay” is a national park, and “Chusovaya River” and “ Oleniy Ruchi" - these are already unique natural parks.

National parks of Russia

Currently, there are more than 40 national parks in Russia, each of which is distinguished by special natural attractions, be it animals, birds, unique plants or historical real estate.

The championship in the number of national parks rightfully belongs to the Northwestern federal district Russia, especially Karelia and the Arkhangelsk region. There are unique parks here: Vodlozersky, Kenozersky, Kalevalsky, Russian Arctic, Valdai and many others.

Reserves and national parks of the world

More than 38 nature reserves occupy vast, many-kilometer territories of Russia. These include: Altai, Baikal, Bashkir, Barguzin, Darvinsky, Zavidovsky, Kandalaksha, Ilmensky, Komsomolsky, "Kedrovaya Pad", Kronotsky, Pechoro-Ilychsky, Sayano-Shushensky, Caucasian and many others.

Of these, there are nature reserves and national tundra parks: Kandalaksha, Pechora-Ilych, Taimyr, Big Arctic, Yugyd Va, Lapland. Scientists are studying typical tundra ecological systems, as well as observing rare birds (arctic partridge, peregrine falcon), a unique population of wild reindeer, arctic fox and representatives of aquatic fauna (whitefish, salmon, etc.).

In Siberia, the tundra stretches along a narrow coastal strip and reaches a maximum width of 500 km (from northeast Russia south to the northern part of Kamchatka). Large northern part Sweden is also occupied by the tundra strip of Swedish Lapland. Small areas of tundra are found in the territories of Finland, Norway, and Iceland. Therefore, controlled environmental facilities were also created here.

Famous nature reserves and national parks of the world that protect the flora and fauna of tundra ecosystems: Urho-Kekkonen and Lemmenjoki, belonging to Finland; "Abisko", referring to Sweden; Norwegian "Hardangervidda".

Each country has special state-protected areas - natural national parks. The designation of this place is of particular importance since their territory contains important natural, cultural or environmental sites under the protection of the state. The parks have different purposes, but they all have common features - these places are interesting for tourists to visit, along their paths it is pleasant to contemplate beautiful landscapes, and the unique nature delights with its originality. Let's figure out what national parks are. Let's look at the definition further.

What is it?

The general interpretation of the concept has been accepted. It defines what a national park is - a part of land or body of water in which there are natural unique objects that have environmental, historical and aesthetic value. Their purpose is to perform one of the functions: environmental, recreational, educational or cultural.

There are three ramifications in connection with which states felt the need to create national parks. Each country chose the definition (what it is) based on the purposes of its creation. So, these goals were:

1. Creation of a park exclusively for tourism and recreation. For example, Yellowstone Park (USA), Banff (Canada). What these national parks are is determined by their purpose, which is to entertain people. Today, Yellowstone Park is visited by several thousand tourists a day. This is a huge area with geysers, volcanoes, canyons, waterfalls, forests with wild animals and much more. Visiting this place is a real adventure.

2. Designation of a certain territory that has already been a place of tourist pilgrimage, and in the future will be a national park. This transition is associated with the presence of natural objects that need to be additionally protected by the state. For example, the Bavarian Forest on the border of Germany and the Czech Republic, or Belovezhskaya Pushcha in Belarus. The latter was created to protect the unique European forest, the history of which dates back to ancient times.

3. Organization of the territory under the ban on the use of its wealth. Let us consider from this point of view, The definition of a protected area is related to the presence on it of important plants, animals, or historical objects to which the scientific interest. The park is created solely for the purpose of studying such objects.

Ecology

What is a national park (definition from the point of view of ecological importance) is a purposeful fencing of a territory, limiting its visits by people to preserve a unique ecosystem, a habitat of rare animals or plants.

Ecotourism has been gaining popularity lately. This is a journey into natural areas with the goal of exploring and gaining a greater understanding of the world that surrounds us. Life in cities traps people within stone walls, and they become further and further from nature. Ecotourism aims to connect people, flora and fauna. Traveling for this purpose, tourists turn off gadgets, leave computers and work, and retire with Mother Earth.

Types of ecotours

Depending on the object of visit, ecotours are divided into the following types:

  • Those who study only plants.
  • For the purpose of observing animals.
  • Separately, there are eco-tours for watching wild birds (very popular in Europe).
  • Geological - the study of the earth's interior, stones, soil.
  • Ethnographic - visiting original settlements that have preserved their ancient foundations. In Russia, such parks have been preserved on the territory of the Chuvash Republic and the Mari El Republic.
  • Archaeological. For example, it stores the remains of the largest settlements of Volga Bulgaria of the 9th-12th centuries.
  • Tours to visit historical places. Interesting objects Such structures include architectural structures, architectural monuments, and museums.

In biology

Let's look at the definition for children. A national park is a place where people and Mother Nature can retire. This area is a model of natural landscape, where there are bizarre waterfalls, unusual trees, endangered animals or beautiful mountain peaks.

The parks are playing vital role in biology. It is easy to conduct research on their territory; special groups are created for this purpose. Rare species of flora and fauna are preserved and restored here. Environmental education and scientific activities are carried out for children.

Difference from the reserve

Let's consider the definition by geography. A national park is an area where human activity is limited in order to protect the environment.

In the reserve, human activity is not only limited, it is completely prohibited. If in national park While tourism is welcome, it is strictly limited in the reserve. It is prohibited to hunt, gather, fish, etc. The ecosystem has exclusively scientific value, and only people with permission can study it. Nature reserves are created in places where there is a halo of habitat for endangered species of plants and animals.

What are complexes: definition

A national park often does not stand alone. Infrastructure for entertainment and recreation of people is being developed around it. Thus, restaurants, hotels, places for camping and equipment rental, cultural and educational centers, museums, etc. are often located near the entrance to the territory. Such infrastructure is called a complex.

For example, the museum complex of the Curonian Spit National Park. Here is the main exhibition, which tells about the nature of the Curonian Spit, about the role of man in the destruction and restoration of the fragile ecosystem of the peninsula.

The complex includes the museums "Ancient Sambia" and the museum "Superstition". Nearby is the cafe "Kurena".

The largest national parks in Russia

1. "Yugyd Va" - spread out across the forest and mountain expanses of the Komi Republic. Its area is 18917.01 km2.

2. "Beringia" in Chukotka. This distant region preserves unique northern relics - plants and trees from ancient times. The territory area is 18194.54 km2.

3. It so happened that the largest parks occupied the northern latitudes. Another unique museum nature - "Russian Arctic" in the Arkhangelsk region. Occupies such natural zones as tundra, forest-tundra and taiga. General area 14260 km 2.

Characteristic features of natural parks

Signs that distinguish this protected area from a reserve:

  • Vegetable and fauna has unique features that differ from the characteristic natural area of ​​the region. It is of scientific interest and subject to study.
  • Economic activity did not damage the fragile natural world this zone.
  • The country's authorities prohibit or restrict economic activities, including cutting down trees, using the riches of the earth's subsoil, hunting, fishing to preserve geomorphological, environmental and aesthetic features.
  • Visits to the park are permitted only for strictly defined purposes: recreation, excursions, scientific activities.

Thus, we see what a national park is. Its definition characterizes the features of the territory described above. These places with unique natural objects need to be preserved and studied. The main difference from the reserve is the number of people visiting it. In the national park it is practically unlimited; it is more difficult to get into the reserve. Researchers or tourists are allowed there to study biological systems in strictly limited numbers.

Regarding common features, then these two territories are protected by law, it is impossible to conduct business in them economic activity, and you can make fires and put up tents only in designated areas.

The main goal of national parks is the preservation of natural complexes and objects in combination with the organization of environmental education of the population in the process of direct acquaintance with typical and unique landscapes, plants and animals. As in nature reserves, they protect the standards of natural complexes and the gene pool of typical and rare organisms. Like nature reserves, these parks protect animal and plant resources, valuable and unique landscapes, or individual components thereof. But at the same time, the specific tasks of national parks, which distinguish them from other categories of protected lands, are the preservation of unique recreational resources in relatively untouched nature and the creation of conditions for educational tourism and the organization of environmental education.

The idea of ​​a national park dates back to late XIX V. In 1872, the world's first national park, Yellowstone, was organized in the United States. Since then in different countries More than 2,000 parks have been created, and their total area is approximately 2% of the planet's land area. National parks at the time of their formation embodied the first ideas about nature conservation, and at that time it was about preserving its most rare or unique specimens. The first parks, first in the USA, then in European countries, were created to prevent economic development areas of outstanding natural value, be it the geysers of Yellowstone or the giant sequoia forest. Uniqueness was the most important attribute of any national park. In the second half of the 20th century. the attitude towards the tasks of the national park and its content has changed. This happened following a change in views on the goals of preserving nature as an environment for life. On the one hand, due to the manifold increase in human impact, the range of objects that began to be classified as unique has expanded. It began to include not only natural masterpieces, but also objects disappearing due to human fault - from individual organisms to zonal landscapes that have reduced their distribution. On the other hand, the idea of ​​the importance of preserved areas of nature has changed. In addition to the functions of a natural museum and a place of recreation in the natural environment, parks began to fulfill the tasks of maintaining the ecological health of the planet, preserving its gene pool and representative samples, creating testing grounds for scientific research. They began to place the blame on them wide range tasks arising from new theoretical concepts in the field of nature conservation, including those that are solved by nature reserves in our country. Both in terms of area and importance, national parks foreign countries became the basis national systems specially protected natural areas. The connection between the conservation objectives of parks and their use for “inspiration, pleasure and education” or “for the benefit and recreation of the general population” - mandatory requirement any national legislation or relevant provisions of international conventions.

The question may arise why these objects were called parks, since many territories of current national parks have nothing in common with a park in our usual understanding. In 1960, Key Largo Bay in Florida was even designated as a national park. Now there are already more than 170 such marine parks. In the USA, a dune national park has been created in the Oregon Delta, and there are Arctic national parks in Alaska, which are also difficult to imagine as parks in the usual sense of the word. The fact is that the word “park” in English has several meanings, one of which is a high mountain valley. Perhaps that is why the valley of the Yellowstone River, flowing from the alpine lake of the same name, was called a park. They are called national in order to emphasize their public, national, and not private affiliation.

Initially, the preservation of the nature of the national park was associated with the withdrawal of its territory from any economic use other than recreational. Recreation did not pose a threat to nature in the 19th century. This cannot be said about the modern period, when recreation has become a very aggressive industry. Visitor interest in pristine, untouched natural landscapes has increased many times over, and national parks in all countries are feeling the pressure of this interest. Therefore, language is introduced into legal provisions and management decisions that restrict recreation in the national park." special conditions visits" or "specially designated areas".

Unlike a nature reserve, the national park is open to the public throughout most of its territory. Acceptable types recreation is considered to be those associated with travel in nature - hiking, water tourism, ski tourism, short excursions. Mass spectacles are not allowed in the national park, entertaining games, sports competitions.

At the First World Conference on National Parks (Seattle, 1962), it was noted that national parks provide visitors with a wide variety of services and generate large incomes. Sometimes they exceed the income that can be obtained from the exploitation of natural resources available in the parks. For example, in the USA, income from recreation in redwood forests is 10 times higher than from timber harvesting there. The return on investment in the development and operation of national parks turned out to be higher than that of mining and manufacturing enterprises. Returns on invested capital, of course, contributed greatly to the creation and development of national parks. In some places, territories that were not sufficiently remarkable in natural terms began to be brought under their sign. As an example, we can name 17 national parks in Japan, created in the period 1934-1950, which later did not receive international recognition. The same fate befell some parks in Holland, Great Britain, Ethiopia, Italy and other countries. To prevent the possible exploitation of the popularity of existing national parks and the devaluation of the very idea of ​​their creation, representatives of the international environmental community - members of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) created in 1948 - appealed to the UN with a request to resolve the current situation. IUCN developed, and the X General Assembly adopted, a resolution which states: Considering the importance that the UN attaches to the idea of ​​a national park as a wise use of natural resources, and considering the increasing recent years in a number of countries, the use of the term “national park” to designate territories that have completely different tasks and status, the X IUCN General Assembly, held in New Delhi in November 1969, recommends that all governments retain the term “national park” only for territories responsible proposed criteria. A national park is a relatively large area in which one or more ecosystems have not undergone major changes as a result of human activity, where plant and animal species, their habitats, and geomorphological areas are of scientific, educational or recreational interest, or which contains a natural landscape of exceptional beauty.

The following administrative actions are allowed on the territory of the park by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources:
- construction of visitor service facilities, as well as a road and path network, however, such facilities should be concentrated in specially designated areas in limited areas;
- construction work necessary for park management, including the construction of service roads and service buildings;
- biotechnical measures aimed at preserving desirable species of flora and fauna; such activities may include shooting or trapping animals to control their numbers, removing unwanted vegetation, and using controlled burning or grazing to maintain specific plant communities.

A national park that meets international requirements may consist of the following zones or combinations thereof:
- areas of untouched nature;
- areas of untouched nature combined with natural area strict regime and (or) managed natural area;
- any or all of the listed zones in combination with the tourist-administrative zone;
- any or all of the above zones in combination with one or more zones classified as anthropological, archaeological or historical.

A national park is an environmental educational institution in which the goals of preserving natural complexes and objects are combined with the interests of organizing environmental education of the population. It is designed to fulfill a range of environmental objectives common to those of other protected areas. If the reserve serves as a natural standard for obtaining scientific information, then the national park is the standard of educational information about nature for all citizens. When introducing this category into the system of protected areas, experts discussed the possible advantage of any of the functions over others, and the point of view about the dominance of recreational purposes and functions in their overall set was very widespread. This understanding brought the national park closer to a regular recreation area or other similar recreational areas. It would mean that the park does not have an independent environmental load and only recreational resources are protected in it. The idea of ​​a park as a recreational institution impoverishes its natural and educational content. In addition, it contradicts the world understanding of the essence of a national park, as enshrined in international documents. The interests of nature conservation and educational recreation in the park are territorially delimited by zoning its territory. The Standard Regulations for Russian National Parks provide for the allocation of four zones with different modes of use: reserve regime, regulated recreational use, visitor services, and economic use. The main burden of educational tourism and excursion visits is borne by the zone of regulated recreational use. In it, vacationers move along pre-prepared paths of multi-day tourist or one-day excursion routes. For rest or overnight they stop in specially designated places. The routes are laid out so that the visitor can see all the diversity of the nature of the park and get acquainted with remarkable places, without experiencing unpleasant psychological overload from being close to other vacationers. In the park, a person gets the opportunity to communicate with nature, and a preliminary visit to an information center or a nature museum, specially published reference literature, educational and ecological trails, and sometimes the help of a guide will help him better understand it.

The park may also include developed agriculture land, mainly to ensure the integrity of the territory and compliance with necessary requirements when exploiting resources on lands adjacent to specially protected areas of nature. They are allocated to a special economic zone. These territories remain under the jurisdiction of the previous land users, but management there is conducted in such a way as not to conflict with the environmental interests of the national park. At the same time, the task is to create environmentally friendly agricultural production and a harmonious agricultural landscape worthy of being a model. One of the important problems is related to the organization of recreational services in the national park. It offers the visitor a fundamentally different type of recreation than in conventional recreational areas. Man is allowed into nature as a guest, and his presence should not leave any traces in it. Adaptation of the recreational environment is limited to minimal intervention.

When using site materials, you must provide active links to this site, visible to users and search robots.