The Doñana Natural Area is integrated by its core conservation area, the Doñana National Park- declared in 1969 and managed since 2006 by the Andalusian Regional Authority- and by its periphery, the Doñana Natural Park. It is probably the most iconic conservation area in the Western Mediterranean and Europe’s largest protected area.
The Doñana Protected Areas includes seven ecosystems types (coastal waters, beach, dunes, forest, shrubland, sandy lakes and marshland) and 21 habitat types, 11 of them of high conservation importance – such as the bulrush and glasswort marsh, floodplain lakes, sandy lakes, grassland ecotones, cork-oak forest, shrubland, coastal juniper forest and dunes.
Doñana host a great diversity of plant and animal species – including over 1,500 plant and over 300 vertebrate species. This diversity includes conservation icons such as the Iberian linx, imperial eagle, white-headed duck, red-knobbed coot and marbled teal. Doñana is also a key stopover, wintering and breeding area for hundreds of thousands of migratory birds making the route that links Northern Euroasia to sub-saharan Africa.
