The main threat to all the protected areas in our country is unquestionably gaseous pollutants, especially sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and fluorine.

In the case of national parks the most threatened by industrial pollution are the following parks: Karkonoski, Ojcowski, Swietokrzyski and Babiogorski National Parks; to a lesser extent – Kampinoski and Wielkopolski National Parks.

Mass tourism also has a negative influence on the condition of nature in the parks, considering that our national parks are visited each year by 9 to 12 million people (GRAPH illustrating national park areas and numbers of tourists). Most often visited are (the number of people per one hectare of acreage in parenthesis is given): Karkonoski (394), Wielkopolski (171), Ojcowski (121), Pieninski (170) and Tatrzanski (171) National Parks. The large number of tourists damage nature in parks. The largest amount of damage to plant cover, fauna and soil take place around tourist hospices, ski-lift and cable-railway stations, campgrounds and car parks.

The threat to biological values of our nature reserves depends mostly upon their location. Most at risk are reserves situated in the industrialized regions, in the ecological hazard areas and areas intensively used for recreation and tourism. Examples of these are:
– Las Murckowski, Segiet and Leczak in the Katowice voivodship,
– Nadgoplanski Park Tysiaclecia in the Bydgoszcz voivodship,
– Niebieskie Zrodla, Spala and Zadlowice in the Piotrkow Trybunalski voivodship,
– Las Kabacki and Jeziorko Czerniakowskie in Warsaw.

A real chance of sustaining the stability of ecosystems and the possibility of reproduction of chosen elements of nature lies in a significant reduction of gaseous pollution and directing heavy tourist traffic to attractive areas other than national parks and nature reserves. These functions can be carried out by landscape parks and protected landscape areas.

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