Great outdoors: Abisko national park in the Arctic north of Sweden. Photograph: 123RF.com

One hundred years ago this September, Ängsö in Sweden became Europe’s first national park. As Nicky Gardner writes, the concept holds very different meanings from one country to another

At first sight the island of Ängsö in the Stockholm archipelago and the wild mountain landscapes around Abisko in Sweden’s far north seem to have little in common.

The first of the new season’s snow is already dusting the tops of the mountains around Abisko. In just a couple of months, lakes will freeze. Ängsö, about one thousand kilometres away to the south, is still lush and verdant in September, the island’s hay meadows bursting with flowers and its magnificent maple, ash, birch and oak woods showing the first hints of autumn colour.

The first nine areas of Europe to be accorded national park status, 100 years ago this September, were all in Sweden – and Ängsö and Abisko were among them. And in the centenary year of Europe’s national parks, these two Swedish pioneers exemplify the variety of landscapes that find protection under the umbrella of national park status.

Abisko is pure wilderness, fragile by virtue of its altitude, remoteness and sub-Arctic climate. Ängsö represents another kind of fragility. In its delicate meadows, it preserves the legacy of 19th century agrarian practice in Sweden – a cultural landscape worth treasuring. When the national park at Ängsö was first designated in 1909, it was less than 100 hectares in size; latterly some areas of water around the island have been added, but at a mere 168 hectares, it is still a tiddler of a national park. Even Abisko at 77 km2 is still only of modest proportions – at least if we compare it to Stora Sjöfallet park, which at 1,278 km2 is more than four times the land area of the entire Maltese archipelago.

Europe’s national parks – more than 300 in all today – come in all shapes and sizes. But they vary considerably with respect to underpinning concept and day-to-day management. Switzerland’s sole national park is a very early European example, established in 1914. The Parc Naziunal Svizzer is in the Engadine region of eastern Switzerland. It is governed by a Swiss perception that nature should be left well alone in national parks. Access to this wilderness region is tightly regulated, and even forest fires are often left to burn uncontrolled – following the principle that natural......