Portugal is home to a great variety of reserves and natural parks worth seeing. The Peneda-Gerês National Park is the only National Park in the country, yet continental Portugal alone features other 24 natural parks, wildlife reservations, and protected landscapes, averaging more than 6,500 km2, which accounts for more than 7% of the country’s surface.

Areas classified as national parks encompass regions that represent natural regional characteristics that demonstrate a biodiversity of natural and human landscapes, as well as geosites with scientific, ecological or educational value.

Nature parks are designated based on their natural and semi-natural areas, where the preservation of biodiversity is influenced by human activities, and which requires the propagation of a sustainable flow between natural and human services.

Several places in Portugal (national parks, natural parks, reserves or protected landscapes) are protected under the European Natura 2000 programme, designed to protect the most seriously threatened habitats and species across Europe. Two extensive areas of Portugal have been designated as Geoparks on account of their outstanding geological heritage.