List of national parks of France
Encyclopedia
The national parks of France is a system of nine national park
s throughout metropolitan France
and its overseas departments, coordinated by the government agency Parcs Nationaux de France. The French national parks protect a total area of 3,710 km² in core area and 9,162 km² in buffer zones in metropolitan France. This puts over 2% of the total area of metropolitan France under some level of protection. French national parks draw over seven million visitors every year.
A tenth national park, the first located in mainland France since the creation of the Mercantour National Park in 1979, is being built in the Calanque
s of Marseille
and Cassis, in the Bouches-du-Rhône
department. As of 2009, the project, on which work has been in progress for the last ten years, is now very mature and the creation of the national park is planned for late 2011.
National park
A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual nations designate their own national parks differently A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or...
s throughout metropolitan France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and its overseas departments, coordinated by the government agency Parcs Nationaux de France. The French national parks protect a total area of 3,710 km² in core area and 9,162 km² in buffer zones in metropolitan France. This puts over 2% of the total area of metropolitan France under some level of protection. French national parks draw over seven million visitors every year.
- Vanoise National ParkVanoise National ParkVanoise National Park , is a French national park in the Tarentaise Valley in the French Alps, created in 1963 after mobilization from the environmentalist movement against a touristic project. It was the first French national park. This park is in the département of Savoie...
(Parc national de la Vanoise) (6 July 1963) - 1,250 km² - Port-Cros National ParkPort-Cros National ParkPort-Cros National Park is a French national park established on the Mediterranean island of Port-Cros, east of Toulon. It also administers natural areas in some surrounding locales....
(Parc national de Port-Cros) (14 December 1963) - 7 km² (mostly a marine park, with little land area) - Pyrénées National ParkPyrenees National ParkThe Pyrénées National Park is a national park located within the French départements of Hautes-Pyrénées and Pyrénées-Atlantiques.Located along the border of France and Spain is a scenic and mountainous landscape offering a variety of outdoor activities including hiking, skiing, mountain climbing...
(Parc national des Pyrénées) (23 March 1967) - 457 km² - Cévennes National ParkCévennes National ParkThe Cévennes National Park is a national park located in southern France, in the mountainous area of Cévennes.Created in 1970, the park has its administrative seat in Florac at Florac Castle. It is located mainly in the départements of Lozère and Gard, and covers some parts of Ardèche and Aveyron...
(Parc national des Cévennes) (2 September 1970) - 913 km² - Écrins National ParkÉcrins National ParkÉcrins National Park is one of the nine French national parks. It is located in the south-eastern part of France and consists in a mountainous region of the Dauphiné Alps, south of Grenoble and north of Gap, shared between the départements of Isère and Hautes-Alpes.It rises up to 4,102 m at the...
(Parc National des Écrins) (27 March 1973) - 918 km² - Mercantour National ParkMercantour National ParkMercantour National Park is one of the nine national parks of France. Since it was created in 1979, the Mercantour Park has proven popular, with 800,000 visitors every year enjoying the 600 km of marked footpaths and visiting its villages.-Extent:...
(Parc national du Mercantour) (18 August 1979) - 685 km² - Guiana Amazonian ParkGuiana Amazonian ParkGuiana Amazonian Park is one of the nine national parks of France, aiming at protecting part of the amazonian forest located in French Guiana...
(Parc amazonien de Guyane) (2007) - 33,900 km² - Réunion National ParkRéunion National ParkRéunion National Park is a national park on the island of Réunion, an overseas department of France located in the western Indian Ocean region. Established on 5 March 2007, the park protects the endemic ecosystems of Les Hauts, Réunion's mountainous interior.-Planning for the park:Proposals to...
(Parc national de la Réunion) (2007) - 1,054 km² - Guadeloupe National ParkGuadeloupe National ParkGuadeloupe National Park is a national park in Guadeloupe, an overseas department of France located in the Leeward Islands of the eastern Caribbean region. The Grand Cul-de-Sac Marin Nature Reserve is a marine protected area adjacent to the park and administered in conjunction with it...
(Parc national de la Guadeloupe) (20 February 1989) - 173 km²
A tenth national park, the first located in mainland France since the creation of the Mercantour National Park in 1979, is being built in the Calanque
Calanque
A calanque is a steep-walled inlet, cove, or bay that is developed in limestone, dolomite, or other carbonate strata and found along the Mediterranean coast...
s of Marseille
Marseille
Marseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...
and Cassis, in the Bouches-du-Rhône
Bouches-du-Rhône
Bouches-du-Rhône is a department in the south of France named after the mouth of the Rhône River. It is the most populous department of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Its INSEE and postal code is 13.-History of the department:...
department. As of 2009, the project, on which work has been in progress for the last ten years, is now very mature and the creation of the national park is planned for late 2011.