While city life may be exciting, all of us need to escape into nature now and again. Some of the best family holidays involve things like picnics, camping, hikes, and forest walks. Exploring nature allows us to catch sight of rare animals and come across special places of beauty. Of course, none of this would be possible without protected nature areas. This is why national parks are so important. They are places to be treasured—places where the country locks away the very best it has to offer for everyone to enjoy. To protect this heritage, governments allow very little development inside most national parks. A few national parks allow things like hotels and recreation areas to be constructed within them, but most parks do not allow any development at all. Visitors have to bring in their own food and drink, and then be sure to carry out all their waste when they leave.
The very first national park is also one of the most famous in the world—Yellowstone, in the western USA. Nineteenth-century explorers were amazed by what they saw in Yellowstone. Apart from the beautiful mountains, rushing rivers, and tall waterfalls, there were geysers, which sent boiling water as high as 91 metres into the air. Then there were the hot springs, as colourful as rainbows. These explorers wanted to protect the natural features of the area from development so that future generations could enjoy the area. And so, in 1872, Yellowstone was established as a national park. Today, around four million people a year visit it. Many come hoping to see wildlife, which is no longer as common in the American West as it once was. Everyone comes to see the geysers, especially Old Faithful, which sits near the centre of the park, and sends 95.6°C water up to 56 metres into the air every 44 to 125 minutes.
While Yellowstone was made a national park in order to protect its natural features, many others were set up to protect wildlife. A good example is the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania. In the local African language, “Serengeti” means “the place where the land runs on forever”. It is a wide plain covered in tall grass, and dotted with trees. When foreigners began killing the Serengeti lions for sport, the government decided to take action, eventually turning the area into a national park in 1951. Even then, it was a challenge to protect the park’s wildlife. In 1959, a film was made of the great wildebeest migration which occurs every year in the park. This film, Serengeti Shall Not Die, helped people around the world understand the need for wildlife protection. Today, the Serengeti is one of the top tourist attractions in the world. Nowhere else can you see such great herds of wildebeests and zebras, in addition to lions, rhinoceroses, elephants, and many other rare creatures.
Not all famous national parks are on land. Some national parks are marine parks. One good example of this is the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park in Australia. Stretching over 2,300 kilometres, the Great Barrier Reef is considered one of the natural wonders of the world. It is the largest structure in the world made by living creatures. A wide variety of tropical wildlife also makes the reef its home. Since the Great Barrier Reef is just below the surface of the water, it is an excellent place to see nature, and millions of people travel there every year. The park was created in 1975 to protect the reef from overdevelopment and fishing. Unfortunately, the biggest danger to the Great Barrier Reef is something park management cannot stop—global warming. Rising ocean temperatures are causing some coral to die and the colourful reefs to turn grey. Hundreds of years ago, people could not imagine that there would ever be a time when forests would be cut down, oceans would become polluted, and wildlife would face extinction.
Facing the problems of environment pollution and overdevelopment, some national parks have been set aside to protect both natural features and wildlife. A good example of this is the Sanjiangyuan National Park, which was set up in the south of China’s Qinghai Province in 2000. The park is at a very high altitude and contains the source of the Yangtze River (Changjiang), Lancang River, and Yellow River. It is also home to many species of plants and birds, along with animals like Tibetan antelopes, snow leopards, wolves, foxes, bears, yaks, and sheep. In most areas of the reserve, development is strictly forbidden, and any permitted development is closely monitored.
The protection of natural areas has attracted much media attention, and now more and more people are supporting the idea of eco-friendly development. Today, people understand that national parks are not just for one generation; they should be protected for every generation to come.