http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5736385/A-worlds-protected-areas-risk-intense-human-pressure.htmlI regularly visit France's Mercantour national park among others in the SE area of France, and was routinely appalled to notice the human encroachment on the parks, with full legal assistance from the French government.For example, the approach to the Mercantour park, above Les Menuires, used to have a log across it to prevent vehicles entering the park. For some years, though, the log has been removed, so that vehicles can now reach the Merveilles refuge hut at c. 2100m, thus allowing people to reach the place without having to walk. In addition, farmers have always been allowed to shepherd their flocks of sheep in the national park, thus disturbing wildlife etc. Plus, French farmers are odious people who scream bloody murder if their sheep are killed by wolves, even though they get compensation.Even worse, the beauty of the park was totally ruined by the presence of a hydroelectric dam near Les Mesches reservoir, which drained most of the water from the mountain-lakes above, which had been turned into reservoirs for the dam. The result was that, in August, the lakes would seem really ugly, with huge pale scars showing near the depleted lakes, showing where the water would have been if the drainage had not existed.Admittedly, the area is such a weather-magnet, that, at other times of the year, the lakes are just barely OK, but still. Oh, and France's national parks are often situated only near mountainous areas near the border, so they often look like narrow corridors. Fortunately, often Spanish(?) or Italian national parks of a similiar nature are sometimes situated opposite, or the wildlife would be even more harmed when migrating.
