100 years of Europe's nature parks

In 1909, Sweden announced nine national parks, the first protected spaces in Europe. Since then the amount of protected land in Europe has grown to more than 26,000 spaces in the 27 member countries, covering more than 860,000 square kilometres. This is the equivalent to 20% of the EU’s territory. Together they make up the Natura 2000 network; the largest network of protected areas in the world.

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