Celebrating the past, demanding more for the future

Published: 16 July 2026

Yesterday, Campaign for National Parks joined Nature Minister Mary Creagh, the Peak District National Park Authority and partners from across the National Park family for a site visit to the Goyt Valley. The visit showcased the landscape-scale restoration work taking place across the Peak District and provided a powerful reminder of both the achievements of the past 75 years and the challenges that lie ahead. The anniversary report launch that followed offered an opportunity not only to celebrate the legacy of our National Parks, but also to reflect on the action needed to secure their future. 

Nature Minister Mary Creagh, the Peak District National Park Authority and partners from across the National Park family for a site visit to the Goyt Valley

The anniversary report, commissioned by Dartmoor, Eryri, Peak District and Lake District National Park Authorities, highlights their important achievements and legacy, seventy-five years since they were created. It also provides a timely moment to reflect on what is needed now, and for the future. 

Anniversaries are moments of pride. National Parks are one of this country’s most powerful ideas, people-powered and born out of protest, and a belief that these landscapes should be protected for everyone. 

Seventy-five years on, they remain loved by millions of people. The report makes clear, there are inspiring examples of restoration, access, partnership and innovation happening across our National Parks. 

That legacy matters, but it is not enough to protect these places for the future. 

Because alongside this celebration sits a harder truth. Nature in National Parks is in serious decline: rivers are polluted, wildlife is depleted, and access and decision making within National Parks remains deeply unequal. Our Health Check report found that nature recovery in National Parks is still nowhere near where the public expect it to be, with a gap between protection on paper and delivery on the ground. Many people continue to face real barriers to feeling welcome, included and able to participate. While important initiatives have made progress, equity must be fundamental to how National Parks are designed, governed and run. 

The National Park Authorities’ anniversary report points to the need for stronger purposes, governance reform and leadership. We agree. But the scale of change required is significant and we must all come together and put our collective weight behind this to meet the urgency of the climate and nature crises. 

At Campaign for National Parks, we believe this moment calls for a more radical step forward. That means National Parks that are genuinely nature‑rich, with ecosystems in recovery and clear duties to deliver for nature, climate and people. It means tackling inequality head-on so that everyone can access, shape and benefit from these places. This includes updating the law, as set out in our recent governance report, to ensure representative and transparent governance, modernising National Park purposes to make nature and equity clear priorities and strengthening accountability, empowering, enabling and equipping National Park Authorities to lead the change needed.  

Through our National Parks Reimagined work, we are creating space for the bold thinking and conversations needed to get there, bringing in new voices, challenging assumptions and building the mandate for the legal, policy and governance changes now needed. 

Seventy-five years ago, National Parks were created through ambition and determination. That same spirit and people-power is needed again now to ensure the legal framework for our National Parks is fit for purpose into the future.  

The anniversary is a moment to celebrate, and a moment for government in England and Wales to step up, deliver long-over due changes in law that rewrite the rules about what National Parks are for, and who has a say in their future.