National Parks

The Yellowstone Model

The world's first national park was created in the western United States, though it is debatable whether it was Yosemite or Yellowstone. Yosemite was actually the first federally designated protected area, created by a Congressional act signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1864. However, it remained under the jurisdiction of the state of California and did not become part of the federal national park system until 1890. Yellowstone, which the U.S. Congress established in 1872 as a federally controlled park, is thus generally acknowledged as the world's first.

Since Yellowstone became the prototype on which parks in other countries would be modeled, its enabling legislation is significant. Congress declared the territory in present day Wyoming and Montana to be: hereby reserved and withdrawn from settlement, occupancy, or sale under the laws of the United States, and dedicated and set apart as a public park or pleasuring ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people; and all persons who shall locate, or settle upon, or occupy the same or any part thereof, except as hereinafter provided, shall be considered trespassers and removed therefrom. The legislation further called on the executive branch of the federal government to establish regulations that “provide for the preservation, from injury or spoliation, of all timber, mineral deposits, natural curiosities, or wonders within said park, and their retention in their natural condition.” Key elements of the legislation, which have subsequently come to define national parks worldwide, are the placement of ownership and administration with the central government, prohibitions on settlement and occupancy, emphasis on public recreation, mandate to preserve natural conditions, and state's right of eviction. These provisions, which have proven over time to be frequently contradictory and controversial, collectively provide the legal definition of a national park.

The national park idea was quickly adopted in other European settler colonies, particularly in the British Dominion territories. Between 1879 and 1890, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada all created their first national parks. Countries in other regions were slower to embrace the national park idea. Sweden established Europe's first in 1910, Belgium's King Albert, following a visit to Yellowstone, created Africa's first in 1925 in the Belgian Congo, and in South America, Argentina led the way, designating the first park in 1934.

Colonialism

The forces behind the historical development of a global national parks movement were complex, but have much to do with the rise and fall of European colonial empires. As European empire reached its height at the turn of the 20th century, hunters, scientists, and philanthropists in Europe created a variety of international organizations concerned with nature protection in the colonies. One of the more prominent was the London-based Society for the Preservation of the Fauna of the Empire (SPFE), which designed and promoted international agreements among European colonial powers. By the 1930s it had pushed through an international convention for African colonies that emphasized national parks, explicitly modeled after Yellowstone, as the primary instruments of conservation. The onset of World War II, however, delayed any serious progress in the creation of national parks in the colonial world.

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