International Parks

The first of occasional smaller stories that bring you park news from other nations.

Two of England's best-known national parks, Lake District and Yorkshire Dales, are being targeted for an expansion that will add a combined 193 square miles to their footprint.

In the United States, we almost always hike on public land, land owned by a government entity. But in Great Britain, national trails and national parks are on private land. The Cotswold Way goes through fields and pastures, past ruins, and even through golf courses.

Portugal can't quite count as many national parks as the United States, but its one park, is Peneda-Gerês, preserves both magnificent landscapes and a way of life long enjoyed in Pitõs das Júnias.

There are many great national parks outside the borders of the United States. Iguazú National Park in Argentina is one of them, and for good reason.

Tent camping was once a popular activity in parks, but most of today's visitors are more inclined to spend the night in a hotel or luxurious RV. Parks Canada hopes to entice more people to try tenting with a trial program that takes most of the roughing out of camping.

Implausible as it may seem, the government of war-torn Afghanistan recently established the country’s first national park. It’s Band-e-Amir, and it’s not what you might think.

Who would have figured the stir that a couple of turtles would generate? I was in Nicaragua in late June working with community rangers who are employees of a non-governmental organization known as Paso Pacífico. I was on a beach observing something I had never seen before, something that hardly anyone gets to witness these days. Two hawksbill turtles had come ashore to nest on the beach that Paso Pacífico’s rangers patrol.

Killarney National Park is the oldest national park in Ireland, and a popular tourist destination. In a controversy mimicking similar debates in U.S. parks, Killarney is currently the scene of controversy over a requirement that horse-drawn carts using the park be fitted with a "dung catcher device," referred to in some media reports as "nappies."

The Lesser Antilles nation of Antigua and Barbuda wants to create a new national park focused on its highest peak, which will soon be renamed Mount Obama. Plans for the new park are sort of sketchy and iffy.

What would you think if logging were permitted in Yellowstone National Park, or if a rock quarry were allowed in Yosemite National Park, or if uranium mining was under way in Grand Canyon National Park?

While national park visitation concerns in the United States frequently revolve around visitor declines, in Thailand the parks are being overrun by tourists.

More than a century after the establishment of Yellowstone National Park kicked off the world-wide national parks movement, China has designated its very first "national park."