The park comprises 3,335.3 hectares (8,242 acres), amounting to 4.4% of the nation's area.
[3][4] During the 18th century, the land was home to at least six different encampments of escaped slaves.
Dr. John Imray, a Scottish physician, completed the first recorded scaling of Morne Diablotin in 1867.
[2] The park was established in January 2000, primarily to protect the habitat of the endangered sisserou (imperial amazon) parrot, an endemic bird species that is a national symbol of Dominica.
[1] In 2007 the park was designated an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because it supports, as well as the sisserou, breeding populations of several other restricted-range bird species.