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406 national park
as the Polynesian Pacific, where `native communal
land' rights exist and where land ownership is
inalienable, the concept of a `national park' is
similarly meeting new challenges.
The original `Yellowstone' model of protecting
wild lands �see wilderness) also has only limited
applicability in heavily populated areas, or where
landscapes, such as in Europe and the United
Kingdom, present evidence of human modification.
Some of these landscapes, while not meeting
the strict criteria of national parks per se, still hold
considerable merit when the broader objectives of
sustainable development and the retention of
biodiversity are considered. Situations where indigenous
groups may at times harvest traditional
resources on a sustainable basis also present a
challenge to a strict definition. In such situations,
national parks can be seen as reserves to protect
cultural as well as natural processes.
While the national park concept has served
nature and the world well, its application is
inevitably limited. By definition it cannot apply to
those landscapes �or seascapes) of special quality
where resident populations and their resource use
patterns are integral but have materially altered
their naturalness. Thus the strict definitions of
national parks, born in largely frontier societies at
the end of the nineteenth century, were found
lacking in their application in places with higher
population densities and longer histories of human
habitation. The recent trend is to see national
parks as one part of a spectrum of `protected
landscapes' �Lucas 1992) and part of wider action
on sustainability �see Agenda 21). When the
concept of a national park was first introduced, it
represented a seminal step in defining a system of
protected areas. Today, national parks are recognised
as the second category in the IUCN's wider
classification of protected areas, which ranges
from nature/scientific reserves, to protected land
�and seascapes), to multiple use management areas.
Within this classification, human habitation and
recreation and leisure activities assume a
greater significance vis-aÁ-vis the goals of strict
nature conservation.
As unimpeded sites become rarer and the
progress of national park establishment slows, the
search for alternative mechanisms to achieve the
goals of nature conservation has broadened. Thus
the IUCN has recognised a separate category for
nature conservation, that of protected landscapes/
seascapes �IUCN Category V) where people are a
permanent part of the landscape and day-to-day
activities affecting it in a harmonious and sustainable
relationship. Such places importantly offer
opportunities for public enjoyment through recreation
and tourism within the normal lifestyle and
economic activity of these areas �IUCN 1985). The
concepts of protected natural landscape and
national parks are closely related. Protected landscape
has been a key management tool for
conservation in Europe for forty years, as announced
in the Lake District Declaration of 1987.
In some countries, such as Japan and the United
Kingdom, they are still officially called `national
parks' in spite of a call by the IUCN in 1969
requesting governments to retain the title `protected
landscape' for areas which have national
park management objectives.
National parks are, where appropriate, sometimes
cross-listed in other international classifications
and systems of protection. Important among
these are biosphere reserves and world heritage sites.
Biosphere reserves are established under the Man
And the Biosphere programme serviced by UN-
ESCO in Paris. The principle aim of such areas is a
conservation role reinforcing the conservation of
genetic resources and ecosystems and the maintenance
of biological diversity. Similarly, the World
Heritage Convention �1978) ± the convention
concerning the Protection of the World Cultural
and Natural Heritage ± aims to identify, list and
protect natural and cultural properties of outstanding
universal �that is, world as opposed to `national')
value for the benefit of all people. Traditionally,
natural and cultural sites have been considered
separately by IUCN and ICOMOS �International
Council on Monuments and Sites), respectively, and
the important interplay between nature and culture
has tended to be neglected. Notwithstanding, many
national parks meet the requirements for world
heritage site status �such as the Galapagos Islands),
and together with many cultural sites and monuments
�including designated temples of the Kathmandu
Valley and the Great Wall of China) form a
specific form of attraction. World Heritage Sites
are administered under a separate UNESCO
jurisdiction, the World Heritage secretariat.