Intercontinental Biosphere Reserve of the Mediterranean, Andalusia - Morocco

The geographical space covered by this Biosphere Reserve comprises the Andalusian provinces of Cadiz and Malaga, on the South of the Iberian Peninsula and only 14 km away from its Moroccan counterparts across the Strait of Gibraltar.

This trans-frontier territory is an important space of communication between Africa and Europe, a strategic place for socio-cultural exchange and an area of high tourism potential and attraction with a great diversity of landscapes and natural resources, often shared by the two countries.

As a whole, the Reserve is an arch that looks at the Mediterranean, on which the breach represented by the Strait of Gibraltar works as a hinge between two spaces that share the same origin and, at the same time, are both singular and complementary.

The criteria of singularity and complementarity, together with the objective of designing an overall management model that allows for the conservation of the natural resources and the sustainable development of the local populations, are basic in the configuration of this Reserve.

In fact, the Intercontinental Biosphere Reserve of the Mediterranean, Andalusia-Morocco:

On the Andalusian side, the Reserve includes four Natural Parks (Grazalema, Sierra de las Nieves –both of them already declared Biosphere Reserves–, El Estrecho and Alcornocales), three Natural Landscapes (Los Lances Beach, Sierra Crestellina, and Reales de Sierra Bermeja), six Sites of Common Interest and three Natural Monuments. On the Moroccan side it comprises a National Park (Talassentane) and Sites of Biological Interest such as Koudiet Taifour, Lagune de Smir, Jbel Bouhachem and Jbel Moussa.