Protected areas are the cornerstone of nature conservation, although this approach has not prevented the current biodiversity crisis. In addition, the approach leads to the suggestion that only organisms living within these areas constitute nature. Nature, however, cannot be spatially constrained, and the same holds for human influence on nature. In this essay we develop an area-wide and human-inclusive vision of nature conservation into a new approach for national parks that we call National Park 3.0 (NP 3.0). The concept is rooted in a re-evaluation of human-nature relations sensu the Nature Futures Framework developed under IPBES. Moreover, we note that ‘landscape’ has always been a social-ecological concept since the term was coined by 17th century Dutch painters. Finally, we note that nature and human infrastructure are deeply entangled at multiple spatial scales in modern landscapes. We define NP 3.0 spatially by the contours of a landscape that is recognizable by people and has geomorphological and ecological coherence. We relate NP 3.0 to other initiatives for restoring biodiversity and provide a conceptual design for NP 3.0. Throughout this essay we use Nationaal Park Hollandse Duinen as a case study where NP 3.0 is worked out in practice.