A national park is a natural park in use for conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a government declares or owns. Although individual countries designate their own national parks differently, there is a common idea: the conservation of 'wild nature' for posterity and as a symbol of national pride. National parks are almost always open to visitors.
Harz National Park is a nature reserve in the German federal states of Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt. It comprises portions of the western Harz mountain range, extending from Herzberg and Bad Lauterberg at the southern edge to Bad Harzburg and Ilsenburg on the northern slopes. 95% of the area is covered with forests, mainly with spruce and beech woods, including several bogs, granite rocks and creeks. The park is part of the Natura 2000 network of the European Union.
Dovrefjell–Sunndalsfjella National Park is a National Park in Norway. It was established in 2002 to replace and enlarge the former Dovrefjell National Park which had been established in 1974. The park occupies 1,693 square kilometres (654 sq mi) and encompasses areas in three Norwegian counties: Innlandet, Trøndelag, and Møre og Romsdal and includes large parts of the mountain range of Dovrefjell along with the Sunndalsfjella mountains. Together with the National Park, there are eight landscape protected areas and two biotope protected areas that were established adjacent to the park in 2002, comprising a total protected area of 4,366 square kilometres (1,686 sq mi). The park itself lies within the municipalities of Dovre and Lesja, Oppdal municipality, and Sunndal and Molde municipalities.
The Sutjeska National Park is a national park located in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Established in 1962, it is Bosnia and Herzegovina's oldest national park. It includes the highest peak of Maglić at over 2,386 metres (7,828 ft), on the border with Montenegro. The Montenegrin part of Maglić massif in the park has also formed the Trnovačko Jezero. The Strict Nature Reserve "Perućica", one of the last two remaining primeval forests in Europe, is part of the park. The park is also famous as being the location of the Battle of the Sutjeska in 1943 during World War II. It is an affiliated member of EUROPARC Federation.
The Costa Rican Football Federation, also known as FEDEFUTBOL or FEDEFUT, is the official association football governing body in Costa Rica and is in charge of the Costa Rica national football team and the Costa Rica women's national football team.
Gurma is an ethnic group living mainly in northeastern Ghana, Burkina Faso, around Fada N'Gourma, and also in northern areas of Togo and Benin, as well as southwestern Niger. They number approximately 1,750,000.
The Confederation of European Scouts, called in French Confédération Européenne de Scoutisme and abbreviated as CES, was formed in Brussels, Belgium, on 12 November 1978 and is still based in Belgium. CES stresses the European dimension of the Scouting programme and claims to provide the "authentic Scouting of Baden-Powell". The CES is a confederation of national federations. The CES is a split-off from the Fédération du Scoutisme Européen (FSE) later renamed to the Union Internationale des Guides et Scouts d'Europe; it left after controversies about the importance of religious elements in the single associations' programs and co-education. The exact number of members of the CES is unknown.
A nature park, or sometimes natural park, is a designation for a protected natural area by means of long-term land planning, sustainable resource management and limitation of agricultural and real estate developments. These valuable landscapes are preserved in their present ecological state and promoted for ecotourism purposes.
Kuršių Nerija National Park is one of the five national parks in Lithuania. It was established in 1991 to protect the unique ecosystems of the Curonian Spit and Curonian Lagoon.
Josip Movčan was a Croatian forester best known for his long-time involvement with the Plitvice Lakes National Park.
Sunndalsfjella is a mountain range in Innlandet, in southern Norway, to the north of Dombås. The range is transversed by the E6, with most of the mountain range lying within the Dovrefjell-Sunndalsfjella national park area.
Ignace Schops is a Belgian environmentalist, a biodiversity, landscaping and herpetology expert. He is Director of the Belgian NGO Regionaal Landschap Kempen en Maasland (RLKM), and was the President of the largest network on the natural heritage in Europe, EUROPARC federation, from 2014 until 2021; and a full member of the EU chapter of Club of Rome.
United Left is a federative political movement in Spain that was first organized as a coalition in 1986, bringing together several left-wing political organizations, most notably the Communist Party of Spain.
The International Mixed Martial Arts Federation (IMMAF) was founded on 29 February 2012 as the international governing body for amateur mixed martial arts (MMA). Registered as a non-profit organization under Swedish law, IMMAF serves as a democratic hub for national MMA federations and supports the growth of regulation and sport safety globally by aiding countries in the formation of federations where none exist. IMMAF launched with support of market leader, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). The UFC is among promotions sanctioned by federations under the IMMAF umbrella in countries that include Brazil and Sweden.
The Latin Cup was an international basketball tournament for club sides from the Latin European nations of France, Italy, Spain, and from Switzerland or Portugal, in a similar way than the Latin Cup of football.
The Tree of the Year competition is held in the United Kingdom in autumn each year by the Woodland Trust, a nationwide conservation charity. Nominated trees are shortlisted by a panel of experts, before going to public votes to select a tree of the year for each of the four constituent countries of the United Kingdom. The panel then selects one of these to become Britain's tree of the year and be nominated for the following year's European Tree of the Year. The competition has been run each year since 2014.
