What Is the Largest National Park in the EU?

Key Takeaways

• The EU’s largest national park lies in South America. The Guiana Amazonian Park counts as EU land because French Guiana is fully part of France and the EU.
• No road reaches the Guiana Amazonian Park’s rainforest. The lack of roads has helped keep that rainforest intact.
• Four of the EU’s six largest national parks sit in Lapland, in the Arctic north of Finland and Sweden. Lapland’s parks cover wilderness large enough for Indigenous Sámi herders to move reindeer between seasonal pastures.
• Italy has three of the EU’s 10 largest national parks. Each of Italy’s three largest parks stretches across several mountain ranges.
• The EU’s national parks grow largest when they protect a whole landscape, such as a rainforest, an Arctic wilderness or a group of mountain ranges.

Largest National Parks in the EU

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The Largest National Park in the EU Is in South America

The largest national park in the EU is the Guiana Amazonian Park in French Guiana. At 33,900 km², the Guiana Amazonian Park is larger than Slovenia and about 12 times the size of the EU’s second-largest national park.

French Guiana is an overseas region of France on the northeast coast of South America. Because French Guiana is fully part of the EU, the Guiana Amazonian Park counts as an EU national park.

France created the Guiana Amazonian Park in 2007 to protect a large area of Amazon rainforest. No road leads to the towns inside the park, which only small planes and river boats can reach. The lack of roads has helped keep the park’s rainforest intact.

Lapland Holds Four of the EU’s Six Largest National Parks

Lapland’s four national parks rank second to fifth among the EU’s largest national parks. Lapland covers the Arctic north of Finland and Sweden.

Finland’s Lapland parks are Lemmenjoki and Urho Kekkonen. Sweden’s are Padjelanta and Sarek.

Lemmenjoki National Park protects old-growth forest and treeless hills called fells. Urho Kekkonen National Park covers one large, unbroken area of fells.

Sweden’s Padjelanta and Sarek national parks are part of Laponia, which UNESCO lists as a World Heritage Site. Laponia is the largest area in the world where people still live by moving reindeer herds with the seasons.

Every summer, Sámi herders lead their reindeer through Laponia, across a natural landscape that has stayed largely unchanged. The Sámi are the Indigenous people of Europe’s far north. 

Italy’s Three Largest National Parks Each Cover Several Mountain Ranges

Italy’s three largest national parks rank seventh, ninth and tenth in the EU. Each one stretches across several mountain ranges:

• Pollino National Park (~1,930 km²): the Pollino Massif, the Orsomarso Mountains and Mount Alpi, across Calabria and Basilicata
• Cilento, Vallo di Diano and Alburni National Park, or Cilento (1,810 km²): three east–west mountain ridges in the province of Salerno
• Gran Sasso and Monti della Laga National Park, or Gran Sasso (1,500 km²): the Gran Sasso and Laga mountains, across Abruzzo, Lazio and Marche

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Pollino, Cilento and Gran Sasso all belong to the national park category of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which sets global standards for protected areas. That category is meant for large natural areas that protect whole ecosystems. Protecting a whole ecosystem takes a lot of land, which helps explain why each park stretches across several mountain ranges.

The EU’s biggest national parks sit where a whole wild landscape has survived in one piece, from French Guiana’s rainforest to Lapland’s fells and Italy’s mountain ranges.