This is certainly true in Canada, as evidenced by the Parks Canada Policy of 1979. It states that the national parks are designed ‘to protect for all time representative natural areas and leave them unimpaired for future generations.’

Then just 13 years after Yellowstone was inaugurated, the world’s third national park was created in Alberta, Canada. It was interesting how this occurred.

Canada was then a new nation committed to a rail link through the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Coast. One day in November 1883, three railway workers exploring the wilderness near Fort Calgary came upon warm mineral water bubbling up from the earth. The value of these springs was realized, and legal battles to establish ownership rights followed.

Soon, however, the Canadian government stepped in. It could see that the area had the potential to draw tourists, and it was disinclined to give the rights to any private entrepreneurs. So, in 1885, the government passed an order-in-council decreeing that the area be set aside for “sanitary advantage to the public” and be “reserved from sale or settlement or squatting.” The original 10-square-mile [26 sq km] site has been enlarged to become part of a 2,564-square-mile [6,641 sq km] reserve known as Banff National Park.

Canada now has some 30 of such parks throughout the country, with a land area equal to that of England.