Port-Cros National Park
| Port-Cros National Park | |||
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| Location: | Var , France | ||
| Next city: | Hyères , Toulon | ||
| Surface: | 2,475 ha | ||
| Founding: | December 14, 1963 | ||
| Address: |
Website of the National Park Castel Sainte-Claire F − 83418 Hyères CEDEX |
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The French National Park Port-Cros ( French : Parc National de Port-Cros ) was decreed on December 14, 1963 by President Pompidou . The area around the islands of Porquerolles , Port-Cros and others is ten kilometers off the French Côte d'Azur , east of Toulon and Hyères .
Geography, biodiversity, nature conservation
The Port-Cros National Park comprises the almost completely protected islands of Porquerolles , Port-Cros and the offshore islets of Bagaud , Gabinière and Rascas including a 600 m wide marine protective belt around the coastline, a total of 700 hectares of land and 1288 hectares of surrounding water. The national park is the first national park in Europe to combine terrestrial and maritime zones. Since 1971, a 1000 hectare area on the neighboring island of Porquerolles and the state institute for marine botany ( Conservatoire Botanique National Méditerranéen de Porquerolles ) have been under the administration of the national park. The 30 or so residents who live permanently on the island are subject to the strict requirements of the national park administration, as are the day guests arriving by ship. Swimming is allowed on exactly three beaches. Smoking or taking dogs with you is largely prohibited, sometimes with severe penalties.
According to the Botany Institute on Porquerolles, there are around 530 native plant species on Port-Cros, including some that are unique to the island. Since the area has not been used for agriculture since 1890, it is almost completely covered by forest, mainly with maritime pines and strawberry trees .
The endangered Mediterranean monk seal is to be reintroduced in the national park.
Port-Cros is a great attraction for amateur ornithologists . Of the 114 species of birds that are constantly sighted in Port-Cros, 21 breed on the island, including several species of falcon, alpine swift , hoopoe , blue roar , nightingale , Provence warblers and goldfinches .
There are several species of gecko , a small, mostly crepuscular lizard species. The European half-finger gecko can also be found on the mainland coast. The European leaf finger gecko, native to the island, and the Sardinian disc beak , a particularly large species of frog, do not occur on mainland France.
history
The island, whose nature and beauty threatened to fall victim to hotel development in the early 1920s, was handed over to the French state by the owner family with the condition that a national park be established there and maintained for all future. In the previous decades, renowned artists such as André Gide and Paul Valéry were regularly here for summer holidays . The former manor house, converted into a guest house, Maison d'Hélène, is still the only approved hotel today. The former French President François Mitterrand used to come regularly to the Maison d'Hélène and once also brought the then Federal Chancellor Helmut Kohl with him.
literature
- Symposium on biodiversity and tourism: placing tourism in the landscapes of diversities: a dialogue between nature and culture. (2001 Jan) Insula, Paris ( ISSN 1021-0814 ); year 10 no 1.
- Pierre Merveilleux du Vignaux: Atlas du parc national de Port-Cros . Parc National de Port-Cros, Hyères 1999, ISBN 2-903330-10-7
- Scientific reports of the Port-Cros National Park / Parc National de Port-Cros. - Hyères, 1989- (magazine)
- Full-page report in the Süddeutsche Zeitung of August 2, 2005, p. 36
See also
Web links
- Official website (French)
- www.tauchimpressionen.de shows unique images from the underwater world of the national parks
- National Park Atlas (French)
- Diversity of flora and fauna in the Port-Cros National Park
- Botanical Institute on the neighboring island of Porquerolles (French)
- Parcs Nationaux de France (French)
- World Database on Protected Areas - Port-Cros National Park (English)
- Port Cros on www.spiegel.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Helge Sobik: Island Port-Cros: The beloved in the Mediterranean. In: Spiegel Online . August 1, 2012, accessed January 1, 2017 .