National parks in Thailand (Thai: อุทยานแห่งชาติทางบก) are defined as an area that contains natural resources of ecological importance or unique beauty, or flora and fauna of special importance. Currently there are 102 national parks (including 21 marine national parks, อุทยานแห่งชาติทางทะเล). Often forest parks (วนอุทยานใน) are miscalled as national parks as well.
The parks are administrated by the National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department (DNP), which is part of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE). The department was newly created in 2002, and took over the national parks from the Royal Forest Department of the Ministry of Agriculture.
The first national park was Khao Yai in 1961, when the National Park Act B.E. 2504 was passed. The first marine park was Khao Sam Roi Yot, established in 1966. In 1993 the administration of the national parks was split into two divisions, one for the terrestrial and one for the Marine National Park Division (MNPD).
Controversies about Thailand's national parks include excessive development and private concessions. Ko Samet, and other island-based national parks, are particularly impacted by private concessions, often in the form of excessive bungalow developments. Further, many of the northern parks are greatly impacted by illegal swidden farming and poaching.
There are 33 national parks and three marine parks in the process of creation, and are scheduled to be officially gazetted in the future.
Famous quotes containing the words list of, list, national and/or parks:
“Shea—they call him Scholar Jack—
Went down the list of the dead.
Officers, seamen, gunners, marines,
The crews of the gig and yawl,
The bearded man and the lad in his teens,
Carpenters, coal-passers—all.”
—Joseph I. C. Clarke (1846–1925)
“I made a list of things I have
to remember and a list
of things I want to forget,
but I see they are the same list.”
—Linda Pastan (b. 1932)
“What do we mean by patriotism in the context of our times? I venture to suggest that what we mean is a sense of national responsibility ... a patriotism which is not short, frenzied outbursts of emotion, but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime.”
—Adlai Stevenson (1900–1965)
“Perhaps our own woods and fields,—in the best wooded towns, where we need not quarrel about the huckleberries,—with the primitive swamps scattered here and there in their midst, but not prevailing over them, are the perfection of parks and groves, gardens, arbors, paths, vistas, and landscapes. They are the natural consequence of what art and refinement we as a people have.... Or, I would rather say, such were our groves twenty years ago.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)