National Park purposes

There are 15 national parks in the UK. Known as Britain’s breathing spaces, national parks are areas of spectacular landscape which are protected so everyone can visit and enjoy them.

The New Forest National Park Authority has these statutory purposes and socio-economic responsibilities as specified in the Environment Act of 1995:

• To conserve and enhance the natural beauty, wildlife and cultural heritage of the area

• To promote opportunities for the understanding and enjoyment of the special qualities of the National Park by the public.

Working in partnership with other organisations it is also the Authority’s duty to seek to foster the economic and social well-being of the local communities within the National Park.

We like to sum this up as:

Protect – Enjoy – Prosper

Policies and decisions that could affect the national parks have to take these purposes into consideration.

Section 62 of the Environment Act 1995 makes clear that if national park purposes are in conflict then conservation must have priority.

This is known as the ‘Sandford Principle’ (named after Lord Stanford) and stems from the Sandford Committee’s recommendation in 1974 that enjoyment of the National Parks ‘shall be in a manner and by such means as will leave their natural beauty unimpaired for the enjoyment of this and future generations’.