Foundation of the MNP

The first concept of founding the highest form of protection in the most representative fragment of the Beskid Niski Mts. was mentioned in the program of the Polish landscape conservation by the Committee for the Conservation of Nature and its Resources of the Polish Academy of Sciences PAN in 1975. It was also supported by the Polish Forest Society and the authors of this concept (Falinski J. B., Kozlowski S., Smolski S.) were localizing the projected National Park with a surface area of about 13000 ha in the region of the Magura Malastowska Mt. and Magura Watkowska Mt.

The Commission for the Nature Conservation of the Polish Forest Society proposed in 1983 the foundation of the national park with a surface area of about 18000 ha covering the area of the Magura Watkowska Mt with the massif of the Mareszka Mt.

In 1987 the Faculty of the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources of PAN proposed the founding of the Magura National Park covering the massif of the Magura Watkowska Mt., the Ostra Gora and the Dziamera ranges and the southern part of the Magura Małastowska Mt.

Official activities aimed at founding the national park in the Beskid Niski Mts. were begun by the Governor’s of the Krosno Province letter from July 30, 1991 to the Minister of the Environment Protection, Natural Resourses and Forestry with a proposal of “initiating the legislative proceedings for the foundation of the Magura National Park”. The detailed project of the MNP was worked out by Stefan Michalik and Jan Szafranski. The establishing of the Magura National Park was preceded by the negotiations with the local governments and the employees of the liquidating Forest Division Nowy Zmigrod.

The government made the decision to found the Magura National Park on November 24, 1994, and the Park began its activities on January 1, 1995.

At the beginning the administrative office was situated in Nowy Zmigrod, in 1997 it was moved to Krempna. In 2000, next to the administrative office, the building of the Educational Centre with Museum was begun. It was finished on September 30, 2003. In 2004 the building was being equipped and then it was opened for the educational activities.