Balaton Uplands National Park (Balaton-felvideki Nemzeti Park)

The Balaton Uplands National Park encompasses Lake Balaton and a large portion of the Balaton Uplands. The area was designated as a nature reserve in 1979, becoming the 8th national park in Hungary.

The Balaton Uplands National Park lies to the north of the Lake Balaton shores. From Alsóörs it stretches westwards to Vindornya-szőlős in Zala County, becoming increasingly wide, also including the area of Little Balaton (Kis-Balaton).

Its total area is 56,997 hectares of which 10,471 hectares are strictly protected. The park's nature conservation authority affects 50 settlements in Veszprém County and 6 in Somogy County.

The protection of the natural heritage in the region started early. As soon as 1922 a so-called heron guard was employed in Little Balaton as a paid park warden. However, it was to be nearly three decades before the most valuable remaining areas of this former bird habitat were declared protected in 1951.

Several of the more valuable assets of the region were designated as protected areas in order to shield them against certain threatening impacts: the Cave Lake (Tavasbarlang) at Tapolca in 1942, the habitat of tartar bread plant (Crambe tatarica) at Balatonkenese in 1944, and the Tihany Landscape Protection Area (Tihanyi Tájvédelmi Körzetet) in 1952. The listing of such valuable areas as conservation areas speeded up after 1979.

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