The National Network of Protected Areas is a repository for biodiversity in Portugal, with the areas included in it being of particular importance for their rarity and scientific, ecological, social or scenic value. The Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests - ICNF is the guardian of this wealth and promotes its conservation through the rational management of natural resources and the enhancement of natural and cultural heritage. There are 48 Protected Areas on the Portuguese mainland, including a national park, 14 nature parks, 11 nature reserves and 14 protected landscapes, national and regional in scope, seven natural monuments and a private protected area, and each one is well worth visiting and exploring.
Montesinho Nature Park, located in the cold land of the Trás-os-Montes region, is characterised by a sober landscape, marked by a gentle relief with rounded hillocks separated by hill-enclosed river valleys. The vegetation features oak and chestnut groves and extensive shrub coverage formed of broom, heather and rock-rose, not forgetting the riverside vegetation, the natural meadows (lameiros) and dryland farming areas. It also has a varied avifauna and the presence of 70% of the land animal species found in Portugal, notably including one of the most important Iberian wolf populations.
Serra da Estrela Nature Park has a varied landscape, featuring high-altitude lakes and pastures, peat bogs, oak and chestnut groves, shrubby areas and production forest. The vegetation is influenced by three types of climate: Mediterranean, Atlantic and Continental. Its fauna includes a large number of mammals and birds, with small reptiles and amphibians also notable for their importance and diversity, including endemic species such as the Iberian rock lizard (Iberolacerta monticola).
Serras de Aire e Candeeiros Nature Park covers a significant part of the Estremenho Limestone Massif (MCE). The dryness, heightened by the lack of surface watercourses, marks a landscape to which faults, escarpments and rocky outcrops add a robust and rugged outline. Water runs through an intricate subterranean network. In turn, karst erosion produced characteristic formations – polje, limestone pavements, caves and pits, uvalas and dolines – in a rare profusion of forms. The cavities are often fertile with speleothems such as stalactites and stalagmites. As for the fauna, more than a hundred species of birds nest here, and constitute the most sizeable group of vertebrates in the park. Some species are of national significance, such as the Eurasian eagle owl (Bubo bubo) and the red-billed chough (Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax) which nests in cavities.
Vale do Guadiana Nature Park sits on an undulating plain that hides the enclosed valleys of the river and its tributaries, which are not uncommonly reduced to pools during the summer. The protected area borders the Guadiana river from the Pulo do Lobo waterfall to the mouth of the river at Vascão. This is the most important hydrographic basin in Portugal for the conservation of inland water fish, with 16 species of freshwater fish, native and migratory, of which ten are endemic to Iberia. Of these, in Portugal, four are found only in this basin, namely the saramugo (Anaecypris hispanica), the boga-do-guadiana (Pseudochondrostoma willkommii), the small-headed barbel (Luciobarbus microcephalus) and the freshwater blenny (Salaria fluviatilis).
In Eastern Algarve, the sandy peninsulas stretching between Ancão and Manta Rota frame the Ria Formosa Nature Park, the most important wetland zone in the south of Portugal. Separated from the sea by a chain of barrier islands, the lagoon is fed by fresh water from small, seasonal watercourses. Many species of migratory aquatic birds from northern Europe spend the winter here or use the lagoon as a stopover on their way south. Worth highlighting are the western swamphen (Porphyrio porphyrio), the symbol of the park, the colony of little egrets (Egretta garzetta) and the populations of white stork (Ciconia ciconia). The little tern (Sternula albifrons), in decline in Europe, nests in the dunes and salt pans.
Nuno Miguel S. Banza President of the Board of Directors of the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests
