National parks are the fullest and most effective form of nature preservation. They include mainly ecosystems that are of natural origin or close to it, especially valuable because of scientific, didactic, social, cultural and educational considerations. The basic goal of national parks is the protection of rich natural values, availing them for scientific studies and preservation of the unique flora and fauna for the future generations.

National parks in Poland have a 70 year history. In 1921, within Bialowieza forest division "Reserve" was created which in 1932 became the National Park. Currently, we have 22 national parks in Poland, which occupy 270,600 ha, 0.9% of the territory of the country. The natural conditions in Poland, however, indicate that this statistic should reach 1.2%. In comparison, national parks occupy 12% of of the terrain of Norway, 2.4% of Finland, 1.3% of Czecho-Slovakia, and 0.6% of Bulgaria.

Our smallest park is Ojcowski National Park which measures merely 1,592 ha, while Biebrzanski National Park is the largest, measuring over 59,000 ha (Table – with basic information on Polish National Parks).

The majority of the national parks are composed predominantly of forest. Forest ecosystems occupy from 57% of the area (Poleski National Park) to 90% (Bialowieski National Park, Swietokrzyski National Park, and Babiogorski National Park). The second component of the park system is water which occupies 9% of their territory. The rest of the area is covered by dunes, peat bogs, marshes, rocks and terrain above the upper limit of the forest.

Areas that are a part of national forests are under strict, partial or landscape protection. Strict protection means that people do not interfere with nature, so that it can regulate itself. People only observe the changes and discover their mechanisms. At this time approximately 22% of the acreage of the parks is under strict protection. Partial protection is designed to make a certain area more "natural" or to preserve the chosen elements of nature in a particular state by adopting specific maintenance and protection measures. 59% of the territory of the national parks is under partial protection. Landscape protection consists of preserving in the most natural state, as much as possible such elements of the landscape as surface features, views, and buildings. In Poland there are over 6,000 ha under landscape protection.

National Parks in our country are characterized by the large variety of plant associations and animals. In the National Parks there are 317 plant associations. 76 of them are forest and brushwood associations. The total number of plant associations existing in Poland is 410. Among them there are 20 endemic associations. It is thought that representatives of all the species of mammals occurring in Poland, about 200 species of birds, several thousand species of insects and numerous representatives of reptiles, amphibians and fishes live in the National Parks. It should be emphasised that some of our national parks are included on the list of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUNC). They are included because they meet the established criteria, they are under central government control and are financed from the national budget.

The high value of nature in our parks is confirmed by the fact that six of them (Babiogorski National Park, Bialowieski National Park, Bieszczadzki National Park, Karkonoski National Park, Slowinski National Park, and Tatrzanski National Park) were included by UNESCO in the International Network of Biosphere Reserves. This network includes sample together protected ecological systems throughout the world.

It is expected that some new national parks will be formed. Formation of the two parks are planned: Mazurski and Jurajski National Parks. The largest park in Poland – Biebrzanski National Park, which covers an area of 600 km², including ecosystems of special international significance, was formed in 1993. Magurski Natinal Park was established in 1995. In 1996 were formed Borow Tucholskich and Narwianski National Parks. It is worth mentioning that Wolinski National Park includes a two mile stretch of coastal waters.

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