National parks of Sweden are managed by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ( sv, Naturvårdsverket) and owned by the state. The goal of the

national park A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...

service is to create a system of protected areas that represent all the distinct natural regions of the country. In 1909,

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

became the first country in Europe to establish such parks when nine were opened following the

Riksdag The Riksdag (, ; also sv, riksdagen or ''Sveriges riksdag'' ) is the legislature and the supreme decision-making body of Sweden. Since 1971, the Riksdag has been a unicameral legislature with 349 members (), elected proportionally and se ...

passing of a law on national parks that year. This was followed by the establishment of seven parks between 1918 and 1962 and thirteen between 1982 and 2009, with the latest being Åsnen National Park in 2018. there are 30 national parks in Sweden, comprising a total area of . According to the EPA, Swedish national parks must represent unique landscape types and be effectively protected and used for research, recreation, and tourism without damaging nature. Mountain terrain dominates approximatively 90% of the parks' combined area. The reason for this is the extensive mountain areas taken up by the large northern parks— Sarek National Park and Padjelanta National Park each cover approximately . Many of the northern parks are part of the

Laponian area The Laponian area is a large mountainous wildlife area in the Lapland province in northern Sweden, more precisely in Gällivare Municipality, Arjeplog Municipality and Jokkmokk Municipality. It was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996; the ...

, one of Sweden's

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...

s due to its preserved natural landscape and habitat for the native

reindeer Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 subspe ...

-herding

Sami people Acronyms * SAMI, ''Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange'', a closed-captioning format developed by Microsoft * Saudi Arabian Military Industries, a government-owned defence company * South African Malaria Initiative, a virtual expertise net ...

. The southernmost parks— Söderåsen National Park, Dalby Söderskog National Park and

Stenshuvud National Park Stenshuvud is a hill in the southeastern corner of Sweden, in the province of Scania, close to Kivik in Simrishamn Municipality. Since 1986, it is one of the National parks of Sweden. The park covers an area of about . The hill is high and face ...

—are covered with

broadleaf forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

and together cover approximately . Fulufjället National Park is part of

PAN Parks The PAN Parks Foundation was a non-governmental organisation that aimed to protect Europe's wildernesses. The foundation filed for bankruptcy in May 2014 in The Netherlands, but was denied the status by the court and is currently in liquidation. ...

, a network founded by the

World Wildlife Fund The World Wide Fund for Nature Inc. (WWF) is an international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the Wo ...

(WWF) to provide better long-term conservation and tourism management of European national parks. __TOC__

National parks

Future national parks

In 2008, after investigations and interviews with the participating counties, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency laid down a plan to establish 13 new national parks in the near future. According to the plan, seven of the parks will be established between 2009 and 2013, the first being Kosterhavet National Park which was inaugurated in September 2009. It is currently unknown when the six remaining parks will be established.

References

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National parks A national park is a natural park in use for conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual ...

National parks

Future national parks

See also

References