WHEN the concept of a national park is mentioned, most people’s thoughts will turn immediately to the vast open spaces of the USA’s Yellowstone or herds of wildlife roaming the African plains. The area bordering St Ouen’s Bay, magnificent though it is, is unlikely to figure in anyone’s mental images.

In spite of this, the St Ouen’s Bay area has been earmarked as a possible location for this Island’s very own national park. In addition, the headland at Corbière, land at Plémont, areas around Ouaisné, and the point at Noirmont have also been mentioned as potential park sites.

It is evident that each of these zones is special and this has in many cases already resulted in protection of one sort or another. It must, however, be open to debate whether the expression ‘national park’ should ever be attached to open spaces of a scant few vergées. Are we perhaps in danger of perpetrating a folie de grandeur simply through the choice of the wrong description for protected areas?

The general principle underlying the national park idea is beyond reproach. Unspoilt parts of the Island’s landscape must be shielded from development and despoliation. Equally, the delicate ecological balance of places such as Les Mielles in St Ouen must be preserved for the benefit not only of wild plants and animals but also for future generations.

But what we might really require is a category of designation that goes beyond those currently available but which will not have the potential to expose us to any ridicule if our ‘parks’ were to be compared with the vast tracts of wilderness that receive total protection in far larger communities.

Meanwhile, there are very good reasons to consider the sea around us as well as the land and the shoreline when thoughts turn to protected zones. The Ramsar Convention on wetlands of international significance – to which we are signatories – offers a high level of future security for major parts of the Island’s intertidal sands, banks and gullies, but we are in an excellent position to designate parts of the seabed and offshore reefs as marine parks and even no-take zones for the protection of marine species.

The present controversy over bag limits for anglers and the parallel issue of any damage that may be done to fish and shellfish stocks by commercial fishing makes the case for the consideration of offshore reserves even more compelling.