Prefectural Park
A prefectural park ( to- / dō- / fu- / ken-ritsu shizen kōen , 都 道 府 県 立 自然 公園 , English prefectural [or in the -to / "Metropolis" in the individual case Metropolitan ] natural park ) is a nature reserve in Japan , which is identified on the basis of the Nature Park Act (shizen-kōen-hō) by an ordinance / statute ( jōrei , English inter alia by-law , ordinance , regulation ) of a prefecture ( -to / -dō / -fu / -ken ) and is maintained by the prefecture administration. Nationwide there are (as of April 15, 2016) 311 prefectural nature parks with a total area of 19,672 km² - for comparison: the 32 national parks extend over 21,336 km², the 57 quasi- national parks cover an area of 14,195 km².
As with the other two types of nature parks, in prefectural nature parks areas that are particularly worthy of protection are designated as "special zones" (tokubetsu chiiki) with stricter protection regulations and differentiated from the "usual / normal zones" (futsū chiiki) . In 2016, around 36% of the area in the prefectural parks belonged to the “special zones”. Unlike in national and quasi-national parks, there are no “special protection areas” (tokubetsu hogo chiku) .
Examples
- Hiyama Prefecture Natural Park
- Sharidake Prefecture Natural Park
- Akkeshi Prefecture Natural Park
- Furano Ashibetsu Prefecture Natural Park
- Esan Prefecture Natural Park
Web links
- Environment Ministry ( Kankyōshō , English Ministry of the Environment ): nature parks (Japanese), Japan's national parks (English)
- Sōmushō ("Ministry of General Affairs", English Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications ), e-gov law database: Nature Park Act of 1957 (last change: 2014; Japanese); English translation (status: 2009) at the Ministry of the Environment
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Ministry of Environment : Legislation and statistics on natural parks (Japanese, English ), 自然 公園 面積 の 総 括 平 成 28 年 4 月 15 日 現在 (Japanese; pdf) / Summary table of area figures for Natural Parks as of April 1, 2014 ( english; pdf)