National parks of France

National parks in France

The national parks of France is a system of nine national parks 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.

• Vanoise National Park (Parc national de la Vanoise) (6 July 1963) - 1,250 km²
• Port-Cros National Park (Parc national de Port-Cros) (14 December 1963) - 7 km² (mostly a marine park, with little land area)
• Pyrénées National Park (Parc national des Pyrénées) (23 March 1967) - 457 km²
• Cévennes National Park (Parc national des Cévennes) (2 September 1970) - 913 km²
• Écrins National Park (Parc National des Écrins) (27 March 1973) - 918 km²
• Mercantour National Park (Parc national du Mercantour) (18 August 1979) - 685 km²
• Guiana Amazonian Park (Parc amazonien de Guyane) (2007) - 33,900 km²
• Réunion National Park (Parc national de la Réunion) (2007) - 1,054 km²
• Guadeloupe National Park (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 Calanques 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.^[1]

See also

• Regional natural parks of France
• List of national parks in the Alps

References

1. ^ (French) Project of National Park in the Calanques of Marseille and Cassis

External links

• (French) Parcs Nationaux de France
• National Parks and other Protected Areas