A National Park Management Plan is the most important document for a National Park. It guides how it is managed, cared for and developed. By law, every National Park Authority must produce one and review it every five years.

But, this Plan is not just for one organisation – it is for the whole National Park. It brings together the policies, plans and strategies of many different organisations (the Partnership), making sure they all support the ‘statutory purposes’ – the main reasons National Parks were created. The Management Plan is the main means of ensuring that those statutory purposes are met.

The Plan is for everyone connected to the Yorkshire Dales National Park – local communities, businesses, visitors and the many organisations that operate here. Download a PDF version of the 2025-30 National Park Management Plan.

Background to the National Park Management Plan

Want to know more about the background to the National Park Management Plan? Read the introduction and discover more detailed information about the 2025–30 National Park Management Plan.

The National Park Management Plan – ambitions

The National Park Management Plan is structured around six key ambitions, each accompanied by objectives that guide how those ambitions will be achieved.

Achieving each of these six ambitions is vital, but in the face of the climate and nature emergencies, and the response to the first public consultation, the ambitions for nature and tackling climate change have been given the greatest priority by the Partnership in this updated Management Plan.

The following sections set out the objectives that the Partnership wants to see achieved over the next five to ten years to make meaningful progress towards each of these six ambitions.