Nature Unites: Peace and Conservation in the Former Death Zone – the European Green Belt
The European Green Belt is a pan-European project to protect the environment and consolidate peace along the former Iron Curtain throughout Europe.
The European Green Belt is a pan-European project to protect the environment and consolidate peace along the former Iron Curtain throughout Europe.
The Finnish-Swedish explorer and scientist Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld (1832–1901) became in 1878—1879 the first European explorer to sail the Northeast Passage. He was also one of the pioneers of the Nordic conservation movement, proposing the creation of national parks and the protection of endangered species.
Established in 1914, the Swiss National Park was one of Europe’s very first national parks. Scientific research became its hallmark and it became an important model for the establishment of protected areas around the world.
Striving to create a “South African Eden,” the Kruger National Park was established in 1926 under the leadership of warden James Stevenson-Hamilton. Since this time, the park has developed into one the greatest and most renowned game reserves in the world.
On 8 November 1935, Mexico’s president, Lázaro Cárdenas (1934–1940), established the Iztaccíhuatl and Popocatépetl National Park, the first of nearly forty national parks he would create within the next few years. By 1940, Mexico had more parks than any other country in the world.
The creation of Kouchibouguac National Park along Canada’s Atlantic coast in the province of New Brunswick came at the cost of removing 1,200 residents from their lands.
In April 1979, the European Communities (EC) adopted the Council Directive on the Conservation of Wild Birds (79/409/EEC), the so-called “Birds Directive.”
The Vanoise National Park was created in 1963 in the northern French Alps, along with numerous large ski resorts. Born as twins, the park and the resorts grew up at best as strangers, at worst as foes.
The Bavarian Forest National Park, situated in South-Eastern Germany along the boundary with the Czech Republic, was established as the country’s first national park in October 1970.
Between 1981 and 1992 the Austrian federal states of Carinthia, Salzburg, and Tyrol established the Hohe Tauern National Park as Austria’s first national park in the Alpine mountain range of the same name.