Santa Maria Natural Park


Santa Maria Natural Park is a protected area on Santa Maria Island in the Azores. The park was created by the Secretaria Regional do Ambiente e do Mar, of the Autonomous Regional Government of the Azores to better manage the protected areas of Santa Maria Island. Several natural landscapes were preserved and their use conditioned in order to foster conservation and support endemic flora and fauna species, as well as provide communal forms of recreation and nature interpretation.

History

On the 7 November 2008, the Regional Government legislated the creation of the Parque Natural da Ilha de Santa Maria in order to coordinate and administer the island's thirteen protected areas as one.

Geography

;Nature Reserves
;Natural Monuments
;Protected Areas for the Management of Habitats and Coast Species
  • Protected Area of the Southwest Coast
  • Protected Area of Ponta do Castelo
  • Protected Area of Baía do Cura
  • Protected Area of Pico Alto
;Protected Landscapes
;Protected Areas for the Management of Resources
  • Protected Resource Areas of Baía de São Lourenço
  • Protected Resource Areas of the North Coast
  • Protected Resource Areas of the Southern Coast
In addition, the Direcção Regional dos Recursos Florestais, which is responsible for the administration of forest resources and parks on the island, is responsible for the maintenance and promotion of the following forest reserves, within the designated spaces: