AIMS AND PROTECTION FORMS
According to its legal definition, a national park covers an area standing out with particular natural, scientific, social, cultural and educational
values, on which all nature and landscape values are submitted to protection. It means that nature and landscape protection are the most important aims of
the park and all its activities on its area have to be subjected to this aim.
Nature protection encompasses preserving existing diversity of species and their habitats and recreating and restoring these ecosystems which have
undertaken changes, usually as a result of human activity. Depending on the specificity of separate ecosystems, existing dangers and the possibility of
their elimination, protective measures can take on different forms.
In the area of the Park, three main forms of protection are realized. These are: strict protection which aims at maintaining the course of spontaneous
natural processes (4% of the Park’s area); partial (active) protection which makes it possible for people to intervene in order to achieve a desired effect
(75% of the Park’s area); and landscape protection which aims at preserving or, if necessary, restoring local features of the cultural landscape of the
Park (21% of the Park’s area). Landscape protection covers mainly private lands in the WNP.
Most of tasks related to the active protection of nature in the area under the Park’s management are carried out by the Park’s workers. They are also
responsible for organizing research and monitoring the environment. Their duties also include: arranging the Park’s area for visitors, combating
environmental crimes and larcenies as well as educational activity. In order to achieve its aims, the Park cooperates with numerous institutions and
organizations and it makes use of both national and international financial sources.
Effective protection of the natural and landscape values of the Park requires its cooperation with local governments, institutions, organizations as well
as the inhabitants of the WNP. It concerns, for instance, investments related to environment protection such as: expanding waterworks and sewerage
networks, building and modernizing sewage treatment plants or solving problems concerning waste management. The Park’s cooperation with local governments
is particularly significant during developing local land management plans and making location decisions.
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