Theme Night - Visiting The National Parks
Did You Know? - In 1969 the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) declared a national park to be a relatively large area with particular defining characteristics. [3] A national park was deemed to be a place
- with one or several ecosystems not materially altered by human exploitation and occupation, where plant and animal species, geomorphological sites and habitats are of special scientific, educative and recreative interest or which contain a natural landscape of great beauty.
- the highest competent authority of the country has taken steps to prevent or eliminate exploitation or occupation as soon as possible in the whole area and to effectively enforce the respect of ecological, geomorphological, or aesthetic features which have led to its establishment.
- visitors are allowed to enter, under special conditions, for inspirational, educative, cultural, and recreative purposes.
In 1971 these criteria were further expanded upon leading to more clear and defined benchmarks to evaluate a national park. These include:
- a minimum size of 1,000 hectares within zones in which protection of nature takes precedence
- statutory legal protection
- a budget and staff sufficient to provide sufficient effective protection
- prohibition of exploitation of natural resources (including the development of dams ) qualified by such activities as sport, fishing, the need for management, facilities, etc.
While national parks are generally understood to be administered by national governments (hence the name), in
Australia
national parks are run by state governments and predate the
Federation of Australia
.
Herb was amazed at the table transformation
Nancy and Tom showed off their handiwork
Books, maps, wild animals.... Oh dear
Tom and Candy boogie on
Sue takes inventiry
Wine in the forest... Life is good
Hardly room for glasses