NATIONAL PARKS

Exploitation of freshwater eels in National Parks

Mercury in Fish from National Parks

Mercury (Hg) is a toxic, global contaminant that threatens ecosystem and human health. Human activities have increased atmospheric concentrations 3-5 fold during the past 150 years. Airborne Hg enters environmental cycles in complex ways, resulting in the contamination of even remote places. The National Park Service (NPS) protects some of the most pristine and sensitive wilderness in North Ame...

Parks promoting physical activity: synthesis of findings from interventions in seven national parks.

BACKGROUND We synthesized the results of 7 National Park Service pilot interventions designed to increase awareness of the health benefits from participation in recreation at national parks and to increase physical activity by park visitors. METHODS A content analysis was conducted of the final evaluation reports of the 7 participating parks. Pooled data were also analyzed from a standardized...

Conservation Geographies in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Politics of National Parks, Community Conservation and Peace Parks

Sub-Saharan Africa has been the location of intense conservation planning since the colonial era. Under the auspices of wilderness protection, colonial authorities established national parks largely for the purpose of hunting and tourism while forcibly evicting indigenous populations. Concerns about the ethical and economic impacts of protected areas have generated interest in community conserv...

Revisiting extinction in national parks: mountain caribou in Banff.

On April 30, 2009 environmental groups released a na­ tional media story that said that the Banff Spring’s snail (Physella johnsonit), found solely in Banff National Park (BNP), Canada, was the only species out of 449 listed under the Canadian Species at Risk Act (Government of Canada 2002) to benefit from the full legally man­ dated conservation process. Ironically, on the same day in BNP’s ba...