September Question of the Month – an irregular series

I’m having the dickens of a time finding a definitive answer to the question “what is the largest nature preserve in the world?”  I’ve searched the web for hours and find many conflicting claims to the title but nothing with a reputable source. Since you have many resources beyond the Web available I’m hoping you can solve this problem for me. If you do come up with an answer please provide the source.  Thanks.

Thank you for your question regarding the largest natural preserve in the world. We found two sources stating that the Northeast Greenland National Park is the largest nature reserve (national park) in the world.

Nature Reserves of the World
1. Northeast Greenland National Park. The territory of the world’s largest nature reserve is 972 thousand square kilometers. On its territory can accommodate 163 smallest countries in the world. Opening of the Northeast Greenland National Park, May 22, 1974 at virtually uninhabited northern municipality Ittokortoormiit in eastern Greenland.
In 1988, to the park it added 272,000 square kilometers of county Avannaa in North Greenland. In 1977, the Northeast Greenland National Park was granted the status of the international biosphere reserve. The park has no permanent population, the number of researchers are here varies seasonally.
Currently, about thirty men and more than a hundred dogs hibernate for eight stations located in the north-east Greenland:

Source: Statistics Greenland. A central statistical organization in Greenland, operating under the auspices of the Government of Greenland, working in cooperation with the Ministry for Finance. Based in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, the organization was founded on 19 July 1989 by the Government of Greenland.

2. The Travel Book:  A Journey Through Every Country in the World by the staff of The Lonely Planet, 2nd edition (October 1, 2010)

Excerpt – Page 156: “… Greenland’s population, tiny for the size of the land, is predominantly Inuit 3. The majestic Nordenskjold Glacier slides ever so slowly through Northeast Greenland National Park, the largest national park in the world.

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