National park is a reserve of land, usually, but not always declared and owned by a national government, protected from most human development and pollution. National parks are protected areas of IUCN category II. The largest national park in the world is the Northeast Greenland National Park, which was established in 1974.
National parks are usually located in places which have been largely undeveloped, and often feature areas with exceptional native animals, plants and ecosystems (particularly endangered examples of such), biodiversity, or unusual geological features. Occasionally, national parks are declared in developed areas with the goal of returning the area to resemble its original state as closely as possible.
In some countries, such as England and Wales, areas designated as a national park are not wilderness, nor owned by the government, and can include substantial settlements and land uses which are often integral parts of the landscape.
