**1. Introduction**

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In the 18th century, in the middle of the Enlightenment, there was still the conception that natural resources were inexhaustible and providence was trusted as a generator of new resources, but the impact on the territory and the demographic increase originated the first initiatives to protect the natural areas in the world, linked to hunting management measures and preventing the disappearance of some species, due to its ecological [1] or esthetic [2] importance. The current concept of protection of Natural Areas has traditionally been attributed to the declaration of Yellowstone National Park, on March 1, 1872, in the United States of America.

Years later, between the late 19th and early 20th centuries, other countries imitated USA, widespread the declaration of National Parks all over the world: Australia (1879), Canada (1885), New Zealand (1891), Mexico (1898), South Africa (1898), Argentina (1903), Sweden (1909), Latvia (1911), Georgia (1912), Switzerland (1914), Italy (1916), and Spain (1918). During the 20th century, the concept of protection of Natural Areas has undergone a visible evolution in different stages [3], ranging from the protection of emblematic and singular spots at the beginning of the century, which would be increased in number and levels of protection under a great diversity of legal categories, and finally, it was intended to integrate the conservation of Natural Areas with sectoral policies and land use planning under the framework formed after 1992 "Earth Summit".

In Spain, National Parks law was approved in August 1916, which can even be considered as the first law of national parks in the World, and under this regulation, the two first National Parks appeared in 1918: Covadonga and Ordesa. After that, Franco's dictatorship (1939–1975) was a "dark period" when the protected areas regulation (and therefore new area declarations) was completely subordinated to development policies (forestry, intensive agriculture, reservoir construction, industry, gaming, fishing, tourism). The joint arrival of the democracy in 1977 along with the Spanish Constitution in 1978, paved Spain's way towards Europe, which culminated in 1986, when Spain was officially integrated into the European Economic Community (nowadays the European Union). All these changes brought new and modern regulations about protected areas and biodiversity conservation, although the biggest step was the creation Natura 2000 network, based on Directives 92/43/ EEC and 79/409/EEC (now replaced by 2009/147/EC). In fact, Spain is the EU member that holds the largest area occupied by Natura 2000 sites, including 27.3% of its terrestrial area into this network [4].

Nowadays, Spain has Law 42/2007, of Natural Heritage and Biodiversity, which establishes the basic legal regime for the conservation, sustainable use, improvement, and restoration of natural heritage and Spanish biodiversity, including the regulation of natural protected areas, and obviously including the National Parks among all of them. These have been endowed with their own and specific regulatory framework, constituted by Law 30/2014, in which National Parks are considered as models for nature conservation and as examples of participatory management, and by Royal Decree 389/2016, in which the Master Plan of Spanish National Parks Network was approved, as well as the strategic objectives of the National Parks in terms of conservation, public use, research, training, awareness, cooperation, planning, coordination, monitoring, and evaluation. All this Spanish regulatory framework around protected areas and National Parks is complemented by the regional protected areas regulation, as foreseen in the Spanish Constitution.

So, Spanish Government has been consolidated for coordination function of the National Parks Network through the National Parks Autonomous Agency (OAPN the acronym in Spanish), establishing their own instruments for management, planning, social participation, as well as their own image as a brand that identifies them highlighting their value and social appreciation. On the other hand, the management and organization of National Parks correspond directly to the Spanish autonomous regions in whose territories they are located, including the maritime-terrestrial ones when there is an ecological continuity between terrestrial

#### *Galician Atlantic Islands National Park: Challenges for the Conservation and Management… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.101844*

and marine ecosystems, which must be supported by the best existing scientific evidence and be thus expressly recognized in the declarative law.

In this paper, as one of the first planning and dissemination tasks developed by LIFE INSULAR project (LIFE20 NAT/ES/001007), we evaluate the past, current, and future challenges for conservation in one of the most unique National Parks in Spain, Maritime-Terrestrial Galician Atlantic Islands National Park (hereinafter PNG), located in NW Spain, considering the present regulatory framework around it, as well as the intrinsic characteristics of this specific natural protected area. The document assesses the huge progress in biodiversity conservation and management that has been made in the PNG over time, including the legal designations of the archipelagos, the trends in public use, the established protection measures, the limiting of visitors, the statutory instruments for planning and management, and the consequences of all of them to halt the biodiversity loss in island natural ecosystems.
