National parks of Scotland are managed areas of outstanding landscape where habitation and commercial activities are restricted. At present, Scotland has two national parks: Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park, created in 2002, and the Cairngorms National Park, created in 2003. These were designated as such under the National Parks (Scotland) Act 2000 which was an early piece of legislation passed by the Scottish Parliament not long after its creation in 1999. It was a Scot, John Muir, who had initiated one of the first national parks in the world, at Yosemite in the United States.
In June 2005, the Scottish Executive announced their intention to create Scotland’s first coastal and marine national park. Five possible locations for this were being considered:
In 2011 the Scottish Government rejected a propsal to create a national park on the isle of Harris.[1]
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Like the national parks of England and Wales, neither of the Scottish parks are wilderness areas owned by the government. The majority of the land is in private ownership and has been worked by humans for thousands of years. Like many areas of the Scottish Highlands, historical deforestation, overgrazing by sheep and deer, and extensive 20th century afforestation with non-native tree species (particularly conifers) have resulted in landscapes which are semi-natural. Like their English and Welsh counterparts, then, the parks in Scotland are effectively "managed landscapes", and are classified as IUCN Category V Protected Landscapes because of this.
Access to cultivated land is governed by the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003.
Like national parks in England and Wales, each national park in Scotland is administered by a national park authority. The National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949 which led to the creation of the English and Welsh national parks defined two purposes for national park authorities relating to conservation and enjoyment. However, Scottish national parks have two additional aims which are not included in the legislation for the parks in England and Wales. Under the National Parks (Scotland) Act 2000, national parks in Scotland have four aims:
The general purpose of the national park authority, as defined in the National Parks (Scotland) Act 2000, is to ensure that these aims are "collectively achieved ...in a coordinated way". Although the four aims have equal status, in accordance with the Sandford Principle, the first aim (conservation and enhancement of the natural and cultural heritage) is to be given greater weight when it appears to the park authority that there is irreconcilable conflict with the other aims.
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