The Gran Paradiso National Park is a protected area established by the State in order to preserve the nationally and internationally important ecosystems of the valleys around the Gran Paradiso massif, for present and future generations.
The aims of the Body are therefore to manage and protect the protected area, to maintain the biodiversity of this territory and its landscape, scientific research, environmental education, development and promotion of sustainable tourism.
The Gran Paradiso National Park was the first National park created in Italy. It includes a vast territory of high mountains, from around 800 metres of the valley bottoms to the 4,061 metres of the peak of the Gran Paradiso. Larch and fir woodlands, extensive alpine grasslands, rocks and glaciers represent an ideal setting for the flourishing of rich and various wildlife and for a visit leading to the discovery of the wonderful world of the high mountains.
The Gran Paradiso National Park protects an area mainly characterised  by an alpine environment. The mountains of the group have been carved and shaped by great glaciers and streams, which led to the formation of the current valleys.
In the bottom of the valley’s woods the most frequent trees are: the larches, mixed with spruce firs, Swiss stone pines, and rarely silver firs.
Going up along the slopes the trees are replaced by wide alpine pastures, which are rich in flowers in the late spring. Going higher again the landscape is characterized by rocks and glaciers, up to the highest peaks of the massif reaching the 4,061 metres of the Gran Paradiso peak.
The events of the Park are strictly linked to the protection of the ibex. Already in 1856, King Vittorio Emanuele II declared the Royal Hunting Reserve a part of the current territory of the Park, avoiding in this way the extinction of the ibex, whose number had been enormously reduced. The King also created a group of specialized foresters and ordered to build paths and mule tracks which are still today the best communication net for the protection of the fauna by the foresters, and which are also the nucleus of the excursion itineraries. In 1920, King Vittorio Emanuele III gave to the Italian government the 2,100 hectares of the hunting reserve in order to create a national park. Two years later, on December 3, Gran Paradiso National Park was established: the first Italian national park. The protected area was managed until 1934 by a committee with an autonomous administration, and then directly by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forests until the end of World War II, during which it was seriously damaged. From 1947 the Park was managed by an autonomous authority. In 1991, a framework law about the parks was promulgated in order to rule the establishment and the administration of the protected areas in Italy, including Gran Paradiso Park.
For more information:
Ente Parco Nazionale Gran Paradiso – Via della Rocca, 47 – 10123 Torino (TO)
Tel.    011/8606211
Fax    011/8121305
Website    www.pngp.it
Email  segreteria@pngp.it – parcogranparadiso@pec.pngp.it
Other info www.parks.it/parco.nazionale.gran.paradiso