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New Forest National Park

Protected Landscape and Seascape

New Forest National Park protects the New Forest, one of the largest remaining tracts of unenclosed pasture, heathland and forest in southern England, spanning southwest Hampshire and southeast Wiltshire. The forest was proclaimed a royal hunting forest by William the Conqueror in the eleventh century and is recorded in the Domesday Book, giving it one of the longest continuously documented histories of any protected landscape in England. Its ancient grazing commons, still worked today by local commoners with rights to pasture ponies, cattle and pigs, make it a landscape whose ecological character comes directly from centuries of continued human use rather than from exclusion of it.

Facts
Designation Category
National Park 1
Established Year
2005 1
Area (sq km)
566 1
Governing Body
New Forest National Park Authority 1
IUCN Category
V 1
Classification
Governance Type
Governance by Government 1
Realm
Terrestrial 1
International Designation
Ramsar Site (Wetland of International Importance) 1
Governing Body
Governing Body (category)
UK National Park Authority 1
FAQs

Who are the New Forest commoners?

Local people who still hold ancient rights of common pasture.

The New Forest is the home of the New Forest Commoners, whose ancient rights of common pasture are still recognised and exercised. Those rights are enforced by official verderers and agisters.
Sources
1. New Forest - Wikipedia
  • Infobox: established
    1079 (as Royal Forest), 1 March 2005 (as National Park)
  • Infobox, area_km2
    566
  • Infobox, governing_body
    New Forest National Park Authority
  • Infobox, iucn_category
    V
  • Infobox: governing_body
    New Forest National Park Authority
  • Lead section
    The New Forest is one of the largest remaining tracts of unenclosed pasture land, heathland and forest in Southern England, covering southwest Hampshire and southeast Wiltshire.
  • wikipedia lead/infobox, international-designation ramsar-site
    It is a Special Area of Conservation, a Ramsar site and a Special Protection Area.
View the Source
Wikidata: New Forest National Park
  • Wikidata Q14524921, class allow-list match (w-wdresolver-0926)
  • Part Of: United Kingdom, Wikidata item, property P17 (country)
View the Source
Wikidata: United Kingdom
On Continent: Europe, Wikidata item for United Kingdom, property P30 (continent)View the Source
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