Croatia is a relatively small country, but it's characterized by a great number of national parks. There are eight of them and they comprise the area of 994 km² , out of which around 76% is land and the rest of surface belongs to water.

These are the national parks in Croatia:

Risnjak (Croatian National Park since September 15, 1953)
Brijuni (Croatian National Park since October 27, 1983)
Plitvice Lakes (Croatian National Park since April 8, 1949)
Sjeverni Velebit (Croatian National Park since June 2, 1999)
Paklenica (Croatian National Park since October 19, 1949)
Krka (Croatian National Park since January 24, 1985)
Kornati (Croatian National Park since July 24, 1980)
Mljet (Croatian National Park since November 12, 1960)

Generally speaking, the national park is part of the landscape, which is, usually but not exclusively, declared and owned by the government. It's protected from human influence and pollution. The national park is defined by the Article 152 of the Law on Nature Protection: "... spacious, mostly non - modified area of the land and/or the sea, that possesses extraordinary multiple nature values. The national park comprises one or more preserved or only slightly modified ecological systems, and its original and major purpose is preservance of original nature values."

Another notable category except for this one is a nature park,and there are ten of them in Croatia. The nature park is spacious natural or partly cultivated area of the land and/or the sea with some ecological features of international or national importance and within the context of the nature park the following values are to be emphasized: landcape, education. culture, history, tourism and recreation as well.

The nature parks in Croatia are: