Nature park

In most countries nature parks are subject to legally regulated protection, which is part of their conservation laws.

To achieve this award, the 4 pillars of a nature park have to be met: conservation, recreation, education and regional development.

On 6 June 1956 in the former capital city of Bonn at the annual meeting of the Nature Reserve Association (in the presence of President Theodor Heuss and Minister Heinrich Lübke)., the environmentalist and entrepreneur, Alfred Toepfer, presented a programme developed jointly with the Central Office for Nature Conservation and Landscape Management and other institutions to set up (initially) 25 nature parks in West Germany.

Five percent of the area of the old Federal Republic of Germany was to be spared from major environmental damage as a result.

Details, especially with regard to the identification, investigation or recognition as a nature park vary in each state depending on the provisions of local conservation law.

§ 27 of the BnatSchG determines that natural parks are large areas that are to be developed and managed as a single unit, that consist mainly of protected landscapes or nature reserves, that have a large variety of species and habitats and that have a landscape that exhibits a variety of uses.

[6] The latter focus much more on striking a balance in the level of support between nature conservation and the regional economy.

[7] Natural parks focus their attention on the conservation and maintenance of flora, fauna, and terrain.

Natural parks may be maritime or terrestrial and can be in the mountains, along the coasts, in the desert, or any other geographically defined space.

Andalusia, being far larger than the Canary Islands or Catalonia, has 36 percent of the total protected areas in the country.