Marrocoy National Park is located on the east coast of the state of Falcón, in western Venezuela (10°47′14″N, 10°59′27″N; 68°09′30″W and 68°22′35″W). The area of the park is estimated at 32,000 ha, of which 22,600 ha are marine environments (Fig. 3). The region has a tropical-Savannan climate with a Monzonian influence (Koëpen 1948). The northeast trade winds blow most of the year with an average speed of 4.5 km h−1. The average annual air temperature is 26.5°C and the average rainfall is 1,213 mm. This area was under intense local tourist pressure, with many houses on stilts built on fringing and fringing reefs until it was declared a national park in 1974. The region is dominated by mangrove forests that line the coast, forming islands in vast lagoons protected to the east and north by fringing reefs. There are extensive communities of seagrass beds and sandy bottoms. The main coral reef formations are marginal reefs and patch reefs, which extend up to 17 m in some places. There are two main areas in the park, the Chichiriviche area consists mainly of well-developed fringing reefs around the limestone islands and extensive coastal reefs up to 25 m deep to the west. The Morrocoy area (Tucacas-Cayo Sombrero) includes most of the marginal and patch reefs of the park to the southeast (Fig.
3). Three small coral islands lie about 8 km east of the park. They have extremely well-developed and diverse coral reefs up to 20 m depth (Weil 1980; Weil et al., 1984; Bones, 1980; Bone et al., 1994). Dartmoor National Park (Category V; Protected Landscape/Seascape) was declared one of the national parks of England and Wales in 1951. In the UK, it has been recognised that beautiful open spaces encompassing mosaics of farms, villages and small towns deserve to be protected. National park designations have been granted to these areas without them being intact. The management of the park aims to ensure the preservation of the natural habitat, the cultural heritage of the region and the continuation of traditional agricultural use. Dartmoor National Park is a landscape of exposed granite heathland and forested valleys. It is a rich wildlife habitat that includes lowland growing areas with grasslands, pastures and forests, deep valleys and high bogs. There is an abundance of archaeological remains. About 31,000 people live on the 91,300 hectares of the park. About 10 million visitors come to the park each year for recreation.
The management of the area aims to preserve the natural habitat, cultural heritage of the area and the continuation of traditional agricultural use. American Pulitzer Prize winner Wallace Stegner wrote: „National parks are the best idea we`ve ever had. Absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us in our best rather than our worst. [31] Non-governmental organization (NGO) As a potential partner for parks, NGOs include a wide range of volunteer and non-profit citizen groups, usually organized around a theme or set of themes. Natural Resources Conservation Service Plant Materials Center (NRCS PMC) Plant material centers and specialists provide essential and effective plant solutions for critical habitats, environmental concerns and management practices. They support the parks in the cultivation of plant material in order to preserve the genetic heritage in the specific ecosystem of the park. In many countries, including Indonesia, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, national parks do not adhere to the IUCN definition, while some areas that meet the IUCN definition are not designated as national parks. [10] In 1971, these criteria were strengthened, resulting in clearer and more defined standards for the assessment of a national park. These include: Maps depicting U.S.
National Park Service (NPS) lands exist in different formats, but the best known is the topographic map created by the USGS. These maps are similar to standard USGS topographic maps, but place particular emphasis on the characteristics of national parks. As there are large differences in size from one park to another, the corresponding maps vary in scale from large to small, from 1:960 to 1:250,000. The larger scale map is the Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site in New York City and the smallest Denali National Park in Alaska (U.S. Geological Survey, 2005). Figure 2.16 shows an example of one of these maps depicting Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. Topographic maps of USGS national parks can be purchased or downloaded from the USGS online store (U.S. Geological Survey, 2012a). National parks are almost always open to visitors.
[10] In Europe, the first national parks were a group of nine parks in Sweden in 1909, followed by the Swiss National Park in 1914. Africa`s first national park was established in 1925 when Albert I of Belgium designated an area of what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo around the Virunga Mountains as Albert National Park (since renamed Virunga National Park). In 1926, the South African government designated Kruger National Park as the country`s first national park, although it was an extension of the former Sabie Reserve, established in 1898 by President Paul Kruger of the former Republic of South Africa, after whom the park is named. Argentina was the third country in America to create a system of national parks, with the creation of Nahuel Huapi National Park in 1934 at the initiative of Francisco Moreno. [ref. needed] I visited Kakadu National Park just before Christmas 2012. I had visited several times before, but this time was special. Kakadu is Australia`s largest national park and is located in the middle of a square block of land that slides into the Arafura Sea.
The region is known to Australians as the „Top End” of the Northern Territory. I was there just before Christmas at the height of the monsoon or „rainy season,” but the „wet,” as it`s called there, hadn`t arrived. Climate extremes at this time of year are crucial for the rejuvenation, replenishment and nutrition of the special environment of the tropics of Northern Australia. The Aborigines know that Namargon, the ancestral spirit of lightning, is the one to whom they owe the „wet”. He brings it to the region to renew and cultivate the bush food of Arnhem Land, which will be used in the next „dry” or winter period. The monsoon develops over Southeast Asia and moves southeast over the southeast trade winds to the northern coast of Australia. It brings storms, torrential rains, thunder and lightning, the occasional vicious cyclone and the essence of life. The pre-monsoon period is called „construction” when it was said that among the early white settlers in the area, as well as many of those who followed, suicides increased as humidity and heat gradually built up. The suicide was a reaction to the oppressive thick mantle of moist heat that builds up for weeks before the first big storms build up and explode through mountains of blue-black clouds, bringing soaked showers and hopefully a respite from the heat, making the heavy atmosphere almost bearable. In „The Whispering Land,” Durrell begins in Buenos Aires, flies south to Patagonia, then north to Calilegua, now a national park. A national park is an area set aside by a national government for the preservation of the natural environment. A national park may be reserved for recreation and public enjoyment or historical or scientific interest, while most landscapes and associated plants and animals remain in their natural state.
Figure 1. (b) The per capita visit to the U.S. National Park from 1939 to 2003 is shown in black. Green is a linear regression calculated from park visits between 1939 and 1987; and blue, from 1988 to 2003. (a) The share of visitors to the 1988 to 2003 graph in the dotted box is expanded to show both actual visitor data (black) and the multiple linear regression model (red) of four entertainment media and oil price variables.