British National Parks for North Americans: What We Can Learn from a More Crowded Nation Proud of Its Countryside
England and Wales contain twelve national parks coverings more than 10 percent of their landscape. Although these parks are managed as national resources, the vast majority of the land within their borders is privately owned. Although they are managed to preserve their natural qualities, they contain farms, towns and roughly 300,000 people. They contain nothing North Americans would consider wilderness. Although recognized national assets, nationally funded, they are administered by boards made up largely of local representatives. Since passage of the National Parks and Access to Countryside Act of 1949, the British have managed to develop a national park system that defies almost every North American preconception of what a national is supposed to be, but still manages to do almost everything North Americans require national parks to do. The British National Park model is no substitute for the magnificent public ownership, wilderness-based national parks of North America. Study of the history and management of British National Parks, however, provides us with important lessons for preserving public values in human-influenced, mixed ownership landscapes.
Comparative and Foreign Law | Environmental Law | Land Use Law | Natural Resources Law
Date of this Version
Federico Cheever, "British National Parks for North Americans: What We Can Learn from a More Crowded Nation Proud of Its Countryside" (August 16, 2006). bepress Legal Series. bepress Legal Series.Working Paper 1556.