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The three national parks:

1. Snowdonia (Eryri)
2. Brecon Beacons
   (Bannau Brycheiniog)
3. Pembrokeshire Coast

Thenational parks of Wales (Welsh:parciau cenedlaethol Cymru) are managed areas of outstandinglandscape inWales,United Kingdom where some forms of development are restricted to preserve the landscape and natural environment. Together, they cover 20% of the land surface of Wales and have a resident population of over 80,000 people. EachNational Park Authority is a free-standing body within the local government framework.

At present, Wales has threenational parks:Snowdonia (Eryri), created in 1951,Pembrokeshire Coast, created in 1952, and theBrecon Beacons (Bannau Brycheiniog), created in 1957, as well asfive areas of outstanding natural beauty (AONB), which form some of theprotected areas of Wales.^[1] One of the AONBs, theClwydian Range and Dee Valley has been proposed to be replaced bya new national park, which would become Wales' fourth national park.

The three national park authorities work in partnership as 'National Parks Wales' (NPW) which promotes their purposes and interests. NPW identifies issues of joint interest and a way of agreeing outputs. Information and experiences are shared by NPW between various people concerned with the three National Parks.^[2]

Land within these areas remains largely in private ownership; these parks are not truly national parks according to the internationally accepted standard of theIUCN^[3] but they are areas of outstandinglandscape where certain types of activity are slightly more restricted. National Parks are "national" as they are considered to be of special value to the whole nation.

The Environment Act 1995 notes that the National Parks of Wales have two purposes:

• To conserve and enhance the natural beauty, wildlife and cultural heritage of the National Parks; and
• To promote opportunities for the understanding and enjoyment of the special qualities (of the Park) by the public^[4]

Following theEnvironment Act 1995, each national park has been managed by its own national park authority, a special purposelocal authority, since April 1997.^[5]

Around half the members of each national park authority are appointees from the principal local authorities covered by the park; the remainder are appointed by theSenedd, some to represent thecommunity councils, others selected to represent the "national interest".^[6] The National Park Authority is also the sole local planning authority for the park. Together the national parks are visited by an estimated 12 million people each year and almost three quarters of the population of Wales visit the Parks each year.^[4]

Formed in 1951, Snowdonia (Eryri) is the largest national park in Wales, and includes the highest mountain in Ireland, England and Wales, and Wales' largest natural lake. The area is steeped in culture and local history, where more than half its population speak Welsh^[7] Fossil shell fragments on the summit ofSnowdon date from over 500 million years ago and the ancient ‘Harlech Dome’ of which Snowdon andCadair Idris form the northern and southern extents respectively, was created in the Cambrian Period before the volcanoes erupted. The more recent Ice Age glaciers were at their peak 18,000 years ago in Snowdonia and formed the distinctive U-shaped valleys including those atLlanberis andNant Gwynant in the north andTal-y-llyn Lake in the south.^[8]

The park is governed by theEryri National Park Authority (Snowdonia National Park Authority), which is made up of local government and Welsh Government representatives. Its main offices are atPenrhyndeudraeth.

Formed in 1952, this is the only national park recognised primarily for its coastline; it covers almost all the Pembrokeshire Coast, every offshore island, theDaugleddau estuary and large areas of thePreseli Hills and theGwaun Valley. It is an ecologically rich area recognised as of international importance for a wide range of high quality habitats and rare species. The park contains thirteenSpecial Areas of Conservation, fiveSpecial Protection Areas, onemarine nature reserves and sevennational nature reserves as well as sixtySites of Special Scientific Interest.^[9] The park also contains a wealth of human history and culture, including the UK's smallest city,St Davids and Iron Age forts. Within the park there are also a total of sixtygeological conservation sites ranging from small roadside quarries and isolated crags on hilltops to many kilometres of coastline.^[9]

The Park is managed by Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority, which has around 130 staff and a committee of 18 members.^[9] The Chief Executive is Tegryn Jones.^[10] The Authority also manages the entire length of thePembrokeshire Coast Path, a 186-mile (299 km) national trail which lies almost entirely within the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. More than 26,000 people live within the park. 58.6% of the population could speak Welsh in 2011.^[11]

The last of the three national parks, formed in 1957 as the Brecon Beacons National Park and retitled to its Welsh name in 2023,^[12][13] the park straddles the divide between rural mid Wales and industrial South Wales. It stretches fromLlandeilo in the west toHay-on-Wye in the northeast andPontypool in the southeast, covering 519 square miles (1,340 km²) and encompassing four main regions – theBlack Mountain in the west,Fforest Fawr and the Brecon Beacons in the centre, and theBlack Mountains in the east, where the highest point isWaun Fach 811 metres (2,661 feet).

It is formed from sedimentary rocks from the midOrdovician through to the lateCarboniferous though it is theDevonianOld Red Sandstone which is the rock most identified with the park, since it forms the larger part of the different mountain massifs including South Wales' highest pointPen y Fan at 886m. Like many other upland national parks it is glacial activity during theQuaternaryice ages which is responsible for many of the well-known landforms. The west of the park is also designated asFforest Fawr Geopark in recognition of its geological interest, and includesWaterfall Country. A number of formertramroads and theMonmouthshire and Brecon Canal running down theUsk valley dating from theIndustrial Revolution now serve as recreational facilities.^[14]

The Bannau Brycheiniog National Park Authority (Brecon Beacons National Park Authority) is a special purpose local authority with wide-ranging responsibilities for the conservation and enhancement of the landscape and the promotion of its enjoyment by the public, and in particular exercises planning functions across the designated area of the park.

Name	Photo	County/ies	Date formed[15]	Area
Snowdonia (Eryri)		Gwynedd,Conwy 52°54′N3°51′W / 52.900°N 3.850°W /52.900; -3.850	18 October 1951	2,142 square kilometres (827.0 sq mi)
Pembrokeshire Coast (Welsh:Arfordir Penfro)		Pembrokeshire 51°50′N5°05′W / 51.833°N 5.083°W /51.833; -5.083	29 February 1952	620 square kilometres (239.4 sq mi)
Brecon Beacons (Bannau Brycheiniog)		Blaenau Gwent,Carmarthenshire,Merthyr Tydfil,Powys,Rhondda Cynon Taf,Monmouthshire,Torfaen,Caerphilly 51°53′N3°26′W / 51.883°N 3.433°W /51.883; -3.433	17 April 1957	1,351 square kilometres (521.6 sq mi)

In the 1990s, an independent panel chaired by Professor Ron Edwards fromCardiff University reviewed the operation of the Parks over a period of 40 years, which culminated in a report known as "the Edwards Report" and subsequent establishment of "free-standing, independent authorities" through theEnvironment Act 1995 and set up in 1996.^[2]

In 2004, theWelsh Government published anindependent review of the National Parks and 3 years later produced a policy statement on National Parks and NPAs. In 2014, the 'Commission on Public Service Governance and Delivery' recommended that NPAs collaborated further with each other, with local authorities, withNatural Resources Wales etc., to share expertise, avoid duplication, and to maximise the use of resources.

Two areas of Wales have been proposed by campaigners to become national parks:

• Glyndŵr National Park, replacing theClwydian Range and Dee Valley AONB, has been proposed since 2010, withWelsh Labour supporting a new national park innorth-east Wales in their manifesto for the2021 Senedd election.
• Bids for theCambrian Mountains to get national park status have been made since the 1960s, with their 1973 bid rejected by theWelsh Office. Campaigns for a Cambrian Mountains national park inMid Wales still continue.^[16]

The three national park authorities work in partnership asNational Parks Wales (NPW) which promotes their purposes and interests. NPW identifies issues of joint interest and a way of agreeing outputs. Information and experiences are shared by NPW between all people concerned with the three National Parks.^[2]

In theirThe Review of Designated Landscapes in Wales (May 2015) they noted that:

The current model of involving both national and local interests, managed by an independent National Park Authorities (NPAs), has struck an appropriate balance between managing these tensions and delivering outcomes of benefit to the whole of Wales.^[2]

The three NPAs receive 75% of their national funding from theWelsh Government, and 25% from a National Park levy. The Welsh Government compensates local authorities in terms of the levy for National Parks.^[2]

• National parks of the United Kingdom
• List of habitats of principal importance in Wales
• National parks of Scotland
• Biodiversity of Wales
• Natural Resources Wales
• Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty in Wales

• The Welsh Local Government Association

• National parks in Wales
• Lists of national parks
• Protected areas of Wales

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