National parks are territories of immense value for the ecosystem. Consequently, people all over the world are striving to preserve them for posterity. National parks can be either natural, semi-natural, or developed land under the jurisdiction of an independent state.

An international organization, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has determined the criteria for declaring national parks which include size, the importance of the ecosystem, statutory legal protection, the prohibition of exploitation, and many other characteristics. Although the IUCN defined the term national park, there are many protected areas that are called national parks even when they don’t fully correspond to the IUCN characteristics.

Some of the most famous national parks in the world are Yosemite National Park in the USA, Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Rocky Mountain National Park in Canada (the first national park in Canada was established in 1885), and many others. The world’s largest national park, meeting the IUCN definition, is the Northeast Greenland National Park, which was established in 1974.