Zoning of South American, Asian, and African national parks

The Manu National Park (Peru) has an 80% protected area.

The best national park system exists in India. As of 2015, there were 103 national parks. However, according to the Indian Wildlife Conservation Act, all of them have only a protected area.

Up to 90% of the area is occupied by protected areas in national parks in Africa.

Europe is following the course of conservation. A brief overview of protected areas in European countries

In Germany and Austria protected areas of national parks, or as they are also called, natural dynamic zones, occupy 50-90% of the park territory. In a classic European national park, nature conservation prevails over everything else. In Romania, the protected area of national parks is more than 50% of the park’s territory.

In the national parks of Sweden, Switzerland, Finland, and Spain the entire territory of the park is fully protected from human influence, i.e. the protected area regime applies to the entire park.

In many European countries, in addition to the task of preserving rare species of flora and fauna, the task is to maintain the evolution of nature, the dynamics of natural processes and phenomena, and the preservation of wildlife in its natural state, when it develops according to its laws of self-regulation and self-development. Preservation of ecological integrity and maintenance of natural ecosystems as much as possible in their natural state is the main goal of European national parks. Along with nature reserves, national parks in Europe are entrusted with the main task of preserving nature in its natural state. Therefore, in most European countries it is the nature reserves and national parks which are the central link of the whole system of protected areas.

Since the 2000s, in many European countries, the process of mass creation of nature reserves (territories of the strictest protection – category 1-A of the IUCN) began. There are already 116 such reserves in Spain, 13 in Spain, 3121 in Sweden, 2189 in Norway, 123 in Finland, 55 in Bulgaria, 55 in Romania, and 351 in Slovakia.

Almost in all European countries, it is forbidden to hunt in the national parks – Germany, Italy, Spain, Ireland, Sweden, Finland, Austria, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, and France. In many countries, fishing is prohibited in national parks.

In Germany and Austria at the legislative level it was decided to increase the protected areas in national parks to 75% of the NPP area, in the Czech Republic – in 2017 it was decided to increase the protected areas in national parks to 50% of the NPP area. According to this law, the main task of Czech national parks is the protection of wildlife and the protected area must cover more than half of the territory of the national park.

In Germany, the Nature Conservation Act states “National parks are intended to ensure the natural character of natural phenomena and their natural dynamics on the vast majority of their territory. The protected area in German national parks must be 75% of the park’s area. If the area of natural ecosystems is less than 75% when a new national park is created, the remaining ecosystems are included in the park’s development zone, where they are to be restored to their natural state, and, as they recover, are gradually transferred to the park’s conservation zone. This is done within 30 years of the park’s establishment. The motto of Germany’s national parks is “Let nature take its evolutionary path.” Now, in most German national parks, the protected area makes up more than half of the parks’ territory, and in 9 of the 16 parks, it makes up more than 60% of the park’s territory. German ecologists believe that the best way to manage a national park is through non-intervention. Like the fact that bark beetles are not pests, but part of the natural dynamics of the forest.

Since the 2000s, France has been actively creating strict nature reserves. Since the mid-2000s France has already set up three strict nature reserves of more than 2 thousand hectares each.

In 2009. European Parliament adopted a resolution on the preservation of wild nature in Europe, which obliges the countries of the European Union to protect wild nature. It is planned to bring the territory of wild nature on land in Europe to 5%. Germany and Austria are planning to bring the area of wilderness (land) to 2% by 2020, including 5% of strictly protected forests. Austria has changed its forest laws to recognize fire as part of the natural dynamics of protected forests. Finland already has 5.2% of strictly protected forests.