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In 1969, the IUCN declared a national park to be a relatively large area with the following defining characteristics:
One or several ecosystems not materially altered by human exploitation and occupation, where plant and animal species, geomorphological sites and habitats are of special scientific, educational, and recreational interest or which contain a natural landscape of great beauty;
Highest competent authority of the country has taken steps to prevent or eliminate exploitation or occupation as soon as possible in the whole area and to effectively enforce the respect of ecological, geomorphological, or aesthetic features which have led to its establishment; and
Visitors are allowed to enter, under special conditions, for inspirational, educative, cultural, and recreative purposes.
In 1971, these criteria were further expanded upon leading to more clear and defined benchmarks to evaluate a national park. These include:
Minimum size of 1,000 hectares within zones in which protection of nature takes precedence
Statutory legal protection
Budget and staff sufficient to provide sufficient effective protection
Prohibition of exploitation of natural resources (including the development of dams) qualified by such activities as sport, fishing, the need for management, facilities, etc.
While the term national park is now defined by the IUCN, many protected areas in many countries are called national park even when they correspond to other categories of the IUCN Protected Area Management Definition