Northeast Greenland National Park
| Northeast Greenland National Park | |
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IUCN category II (national park)
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| Location |
 Greenland
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| Coordinates | 76°N 30°W / 76°N 30°WCoordinates: 76°N 30°W / 76°N 30°W |
| Area | 972,000 km2 (375,000 sq mi) |
| Established | 21 May 1974 |
Northeast Greenland National Park (Greenlandic: Kalaallit Nunaanni nuna eqqissisimatitaq, Danish: Grønlands Nationalpark) is the world's largest and most northerly national park. It is the largest protected land area in the world. Established in 1974 and expanded to its present size in 1988, it protects 972,001 km2 (375,000 sq mi) of the interior and northeastern coast of Greenland and is bigger than all but twenty-nine countries in the world. It was the first national park to be created in the Kingdom of Denmark and remains Greenland's only national park.
The park shares borders, largely laid out as straight lines, with the Sermersooq municipality in the south and with the Qaasuitsup municipality in the west along the 45° West meridian on the ice cap in the west. The large interior of the park is part of the Greenland Ice Sheet, but there are also large ice-free areas along the coast and on Peary Land in the north. Besides Peary land, the park includes the King Frederick VIII Land and King Christian X Land geographical areas.
The area is subject to larger loss of ice than expected.
Originally created on 22 May 1974 from the northern, practically uninhabited part of the former Ittoqqortoormiit Municipality in Tunu (East Greenland), in 1988 the park was expanded by another 272,000 km2 (105,019.8 sq mi) to its present size, adding the northeastern part of the former county of Avannaa (North Greenland). In January 1977 it was designated an international biosphere reserve. The park is overseen by the Greenland Department of Environment and Nature. The historical research camps on the ice sheet−Eismitte and North Ice−fall within the boundaries of the present-day park.
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