The National Park Stage of Environmental Devastation

I have started to notice something in my wanderings: As a tendency, countries don't establish National Parks until there is almost no wild land left. As much as we applaud nations for such an act, which was now famously pioneered by the United States (thank you Ken Burns!), it actually can be a sign not that a nation is pristine, but that it is on the skids environmentally, and having an awakening. It's like an Alcoholic admitting he has a problem. I think it is fair to stay this was the case with the United States.. the Logging industry had torn through it by then, and it was a reaction, not necissarily an intrinsically noble act.
Case in point could be a comparison between Costa Rica and Belize. Costa Rica has a well developed National Park System that is one of the drivers of it's thriving Tourism Industry, but it is offically listed as 40% forested (sometimes agencies mickey with these numbers and , and I think it might be less. Belize is pretty casual about the whole national park thing, and it's 71% forested (we get to it tomorrow.. no worry!). In a funny way it seems like when a country finally gets around to making national parks, it's making a funny compromise.. it's dividing up the spoils, and what is left almost always gets eaten up.. you can almost see the edges of a lot of parks because everything up to the line gets developed.. it's almost as if the declaration of the park gives value to all around it.. and people perk up and realize the lumber and all is worth harvesting and up for grabs...
this is why in some funny way, I am more fascinated by countries that haven't gotten their act together to get to this point.. there almost seems to be more wilderness, and less bureaucracy, and bureaucracy in countries like the kinds I am referring to can almost have a negative impact.. the powers that be get involved and start to smell the money, since their cousin just declared a national park, and it isn't always a good thing for the whole ecosystem, assuming the land inside the new boundaries is properly administered and preserved. They come up and gobble up everything up tot he line as if the park gives them permission, like a blessing of sorts..
It's a tricky world this..
The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men
Gang aft agley,
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For promis'd joy!