Understand the purpose and importance of national parks and its impact on the environment.
The National Park Day reminds us to stop and reflect on the importance of national parks in our day to day lives.
National parks are a great source of entertainment for kids and adults alike today. That said, they serve a much more important purpose in our daily lives.
Therefore, in line with the steadily approaching National Park Day, we strive to elucidate their importance and exactly what they do for us.
Why is the National Park Service important?
National parks are areas that enjoy a certain legal category that allows these places to protect and conserve the richness of flora and fauna. They are characterized as places of scientific, scenic and educational interest.
Ideally, students, of all levels, visit national parks around the world in order to get the best out of place and bring the experience to reproduce it later in everyday life through environmentally desirable behavior.
In a national park, we find nature in its optimal states such as soil, vegetation, air, water, and living organisms, which cohabit within the parameters governed by the same nature.
Developing environmental education in these natural sites can be true learning, following the practice of imitating nature, i.e., continuing its rhythm of constructive evolution, thus recreating life.
Beyond its tourist attraction, there are two reasons why it is essential to protect national parks around the world:
They are a source of energy: In many cases, national parks protect the natural resources used for the generation of energy. The most prominent case is that of water.
For example, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the private reserve Eternal Forest of Children in Costa Rica provides water to a company that generates electricity and is paid for it in kind.
They protect natural resources: Protected areas can help mitigate the impacts of natural disasters with soil stabilization (for example, avoiding avalanches, landslides, and erosion) and reducing floods (for example, mitigation in small basins, protection of alluvial plains and wetlands).
They can also help in protecting coasts by using mangroves, sand dunes or coral reefs as storm barriers.
What is the purpose of the National Park Service?
The basic objective of any National Park is to ensure the conservation of its natural values. It is, therefore, a place of protection that carries with it a special legal regime in order to ensure that conservation.
Consequently, not every place can be declared a National Park. On the contrary, National Parks are singular spaces, scarce and, of course, infrequent.
These are places where “non-intervention” prevails and where the principle is to allow the free evolution of natural processes.
The second objective of the National Parks service is to make conservation compatible with citizens’ use and enjoyment of the natural values contained in the parks.
In the third place, National Parks are at the service of research and the increase of scientific knowledge, because they aid researchers and scientists know more about the environment we live in and exist with it naturally.
Keeping all the above purposes in mind, National Parks can be an engine for the economic development of the regions in which they offer an alternative of different use and consistent with a model of quality of life that is increasingly committed to the conservation of nature.
What ways do humans impact the environment?
Human beings are an integral part of the biosphere. We often misuse natural resources without taking into account their negative effects.
The human impact on the environment is lethal and varied. Following are the ways in which humans are continually impacting the environment in the present times:
Air pollution: It is caused by automobiles and industries. They cause respiratory problems in people and animals as well as damage plants.
Water pollution: The leading cause is the dumping of waste into rivers and seas. It causes a decrease in the availability of drinking water and disturbs the balance of some communities.
Deforestation: Forests are cut down to obtain wood and growing areas. This affects the beings that live in them and causes desertification.
The alteration of the ozone layer: The existence of the ozone layer is vital for the preservation of life on our planet. In recent years, some products such as aerosols have caused their deterioration, causing a hole in Antarctica.
And this is just the tip of the iceberg where the human impact on the environment is concerned. The environment suffers every day at the hands of people, and this is precisely where national parks come into the picture.
They help save the environment.
Who created the national park system and how did it impact the environment?
The first national park in the world came into existence on 1st March 1982. The U.S. Congress established it, and President Ulysses S. Grant signed it into law.
The name of the first national park was the Yellowstone National Park, and it came into existence in Wyoming. Ever since its establishment, Yellowstone has suffered significantly at the hands of humans, and human activity has put a significant dent in the ecosystem of this national park.
However, the national park is optimistic about its future, and according to some evidence, the park is expected to continue to survive as well as flourish. That being said, it is still crucial for us to protect this national park and many others around the world.
Final words
Human activity and its constant meddling with the environment have led to a consistent decline in environmental health over the last few decades. The ozone layer depletion, as well as the rising levels of pollution throughout the world, is, frankly, just the tip of the iceberg.
Fortunately, national parks are a proven boon, and they continue to work in favor of the environment. Hence, it is our moral duty to do everything in our power to help preserve these parks and ensure their ecosystem is safe and sound.
