Cabrera: Overview

 

OCEANA cabrera

The Maritime-Terrestrial National Park of the Cabrera Archipelago, to the south of the island of Majorca, is located in the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. It has a land surface of 1,318 hectares, distributed between 19 islands, and a marine surface of 8,703 hectares, which amount to 7.5% of the area currently protected in the Balearics.

The Cabrera archipelago is a protected area of the highest level due to its classification as a National Park. Firstly, it is a very significant area for migratory seabirds, with more than 130 species nesting in these islands. There are also many interesting vegetable species, including around twenty endemic species to the Balearics, as well as other fauna, from insects and reptiles to small mammals, among others.

But biodiversity is equally dramatic under the surface of the sea, where a typical Mediterranean enclave is found, with rocky formations covered in a huge variety of red, green, and brown algae and endless invertebrates; as well as undersea caves that shelter fish, corals, and crustaceans. In addition, there are significant undersea meadows of Posidonia oceanica and Cymodocea nodosa as well as coralligenous formations and maërl.

This is one of the few Spanish national parks with a marine surface, together with Doñana, in Huelva, which has a narrow marine strip of 4,778.96 hectares as a buffer area, and the Maritime-Terrestrial National Park of the Atlantic Islands in Galicia, with 7,285.2 marine hectares and 1,194.8 land hectares.

Bionomic Report on Cabrera (Spanish)

Proposal for expansion of Cabrera (Spanish)

 

Oceana is grateful to Waitt Foundation for generously supporting our work to enlarge the protected area of Cabrera National Park.