Campaigners are urging the Scottish Government to mark the centenary of the death of naturalist John Muir by creating more national parks.
The Scottish Campaign for National Parks (SCNP) and the Association for the Protection of Rural Scotland (APRS) said it would be the ” best possible way” to honour “one of Scotland’s most famous sons”.
They claimed there is unfinished business after the creation of the two national parks covering the Cairngorms and Loch Lomond and the Trossachs.
The organisations also accused the SNP of breaking its 2011 manifesto agreement to work with communities to explore the creation of new national parks.
This is because former Environment Minister Paul Wheelhouse said earlier this year there were no further plans to create any more.
The SCNP and APRS said that goes contrary against the wishes of people in Harris who “voted overwhelmingly” in favour of Scotland’s third national park.
John Muir died December 24, 1914. Originally from Dunbar, East Lothian, his efforts to protect wild areas in American led to the creation of more than 400 national parks worldwide.
Ross Anderson, SCNP chairman, said: “‘As a nation we are currently near the bottom of the world league in terms of our number of national parks. This is unfinished business in Scotland, so we have published a well-argued strategy for seven more national parks to join the two existing ones covering the Cairngorms and Loch Lomond and The Trossachs.”
Along with Harris, the campaigners are pressing for new national parks including Wester Ross, Glen Affric, and the Ben Nevis-Glen Coe-Black Mount area.
John Mayhew, APRS director, said: “It would be the best possible way to honour the memory of John Muir for the Scottish Government to create more national parks.
“This would help to protect and promote more of Scotland’s magnificent landscapes and to regenerate some of the more economically fragile parts of rural Scotland.”