by The UK is one of the most energy-consuming countries in the world. It has no virgin forests. Its rivers and seas are fetid. Its grassland is a virtual green desert. What we like to call ancient woodland – meaning trees planted after 1600 – only covers 2.5 percent of the land. One in six species is at risk of extinction. More than half of our flowering plant species, including heather and harebell, and animals such as turtle dove, water vole and European eel face an uncertain future.
Averting this apocalypse requires political vision and a revolution in thinking about food, exercise, recreation and health. But the first step should focus on our 15 national parks. They face funding cuts. The closure of visitor centers leaves vast areas unstaffed. Some park CEOs have even spoken of a “de facto crisis”. Friends of the Earth say the parks are failing to tackle the nature and climate crisis; but some areas of them are under stress due to traffic and an increase in the number of visitors after the pandemic.
How can we change this terrible situation? One way is to learn from practices in Europe and America so that our parks offer more than over-swimming footpaths, over-touristed honeypots and haphazard views of sheep fields, roaring summits and unswimmable rivers. Here are 10 solutions for a better future.
1. Reduce farmland and prevent grouse shooting
Farm areas range from around 50 per cent in some national parks to 82 per cent in the Peak District. This is a legacy of the slowness of the establishment of the United Kingdom when it came to the creation of national parks. The US began in 1872 with Yellowstone. Despite appeals, protests and trespasses, the UK had to wait until 1949.
Cattle are still a serious danger to walkers. Sheep abandon highlands and lowlands. Grouse management schemes result in fires and the destruction of peatlands. It is time to rethink the UK’s relationship with farming and food. We may not have to call in the army to exterminate herdsmen as happened in the US, but all farming should be ecological, sustainable and regenerative, and there must be less of it in protected areas.
2. Creating an infrastructure that supports recreation
Properly plan, expand and manage campgrounds and encourage “wild” camping as many US national parks do. Repurposed houses and abandoned barns as dedicated accommodation. Grant concessions to serious tour operators with a sustainable mindset to run bunkhouses, simple hotels and quality campsites, as is the case in Torres del Paine, Kakadu and national parks in many countries. Encourage active, healthy, adventure-oriented tourism like the courses offered by Glenmore Lodge in Monadh Ruairí.
3. Formulate and enforce strict rules for everyone
Vanoise National Park, the oldest park in France (celebrated its 60th anniversary last year) bans dogs, litter and campfires and allows no traffic in its central core. We need to educate the population, especially school-age children, about appropriate behavior. In 2020 – as the pandemic escalated – the UK Government spent £2,000 to promote the Rural Code. The 2021 campaign slogan “Make a Memory” was largely lame. Why can’t corporations sponsor rural education campaigns? It would be much more valuable than the greenwashing they pay for.
4. Invest in public transport
For more than twenty years, Germany has been promoting the use of public transport to access nature regions, in collaboration with three major environmental associations and Deutsche Bahn.
Large parts of the Lake District – England’s largest national park and second most visited – are inaccessible without a car or motorbike (unless you’re Bradley Wiggins or Alfred Wainwright). We need regular trains, new rail lines and buses every 10-15 minutes – small electric powered minibuses, please – to open up our green spaces to all, and to reduce emissions. Of course, everything costs money, and roads and rail are expensive. It’s time to try charging foreign visitors, as is common around the world.
5. Controlling the flow of visitors
Yosemite has announced that it will bring back a reservation system for 2024 between April and October. UK parks should impose similar restrictions to ease bottlenecks. Charges for overcrowded “Instagram” locations and promotion of less visited areas will help to appease the locals and make the visitor experience more enjoyable and original.
6. Ban on dogs
They may be friends, but dogs are not the countryside. They are noisy. They poo everywhere. They scare children. They stray from paths built to protect sensitive environments such as grass meadows (often habitats for ground-nesting birds). There are a large number of reported cases of dogs causing concern to livestock. They are a threat to coastal seabirds, terns, badgers, red squirrels, you name it. As in city parks, small dog areas could be created in peripheral corners of parks instead.
7. Eliminate the “National Landscapes” moniker.
The renaming of the old AONBs in November 2023 was vague and rather nonchalant – a classic empty “branding” gesture from the national government. Let’s turn all our protected areas into full-blown national parks and create trails to connect them all. We won’t have Northeast Greenland National Park – the largest park in the world – but we can have a combined patchwork that’s environmentally friendly and truly national. Where to start? The Lakes, Dales and Bowland join to form the Great North National Park.
8. Think beyond the hills
All over the world there are national parks to protect coasts, steppes, lakes, islands, mangroves, wetlands and deserts. The UK is small and has a relatively limited range of biomes, but we need to think seriously about protecting our marine environments in particular. According to Greenpeace, 92 percent of so-called “Marine Protected Areas” lack proper protection against destructive fishing. Turflands also require urgent attention. The UK has a hyper-urban population; Eight out of ten of us live in towns and cities. It is high time we create an urban national park like Tijuca in Rio de Janeiro. And no, London, it’s not about you. Why not start at Sutton Park, a 2,400-acre National Nature Reserve six miles north of Birmingham? It is one of the largest urban parks in Europe and has been designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest. A few tweaks and it could be a template for others to follow.
9. Build in winter resilience
Half the year (three quarters in Scotland), the weather is cold and/or wet and the days are short. National parks must operate all year round. While we can’t make ski snow out of hoops, we can at least make the roads, footpaths, signs and emergency support winter resilient. Restored bothies and barns would be handy in the wilder uplands. Let’s celebrate the dark skies. We will have shelters near snow summits and bus services after 4pm and after September.
10. Aim high
Around the world, national parks are closely related to habitat conservation and restoration. In Britain, you are lucky if you see them or a rookery on your slopes. We must imagine our parks as the home of eagles, lynxes, wolves, beavers, otters, wild boars, even bears and bears. Wigan now has rainforests. But the skyscraper is, tragically, on the red list. We need to revive lost species and topographic diversity.
