Doñana National Park

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Doñana National Park: A Biodiverse Haven in Southern Spain

Doñana National Park, located in the autonomous community of Andalusia, spans across the provinces of Huelva, Cádiz, and Seville in southern Spain. Named after Doña Ana de Silva y Mendoza, wife of the 7th Duke of Medina Sidonia, this expansive natural reserve encompasses an area of approximately 543 square kilometers (209.65 square miles). Of this total area, 135 square kilometers (52.12 square miles) are designated as a protected zone.

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UNESCO Description of the World Heritage Site

Doñana National Park in Andalusia occupies the right bank of the Guadalquivir river at its estuary on the Atlantic Ocean. It is notable for the great diversity of its biotopes, especially lagoons, marshlands, fixed and mobile dunes, scrub woodland and maquis. It is home to five threatened bird species. It is one of the largest heronries in the Mediterranean region and is the wintering site for more than 500,000 water fowl each year.

UNESCO Justification of the World Heritage Site

Criterion (vii): Many authors have stressed the exceptional beauty, the solitude offered by its landscapes and the untouched nature of Doñana, and in particular its vast wild expanses which include various types of habitats (marshes, forests, beaches, dunes, lagoons). Its 38 km beach is completely virgin, and its marshes are home to spectacular colonies of nesting birds.

Criterion (ix): The marshes of the Guadalquivir River are an example of geological processes developed during the Pleistocene. Doñana contains the last area of Guadalquivir marshes unaltered by agriculture or urban development. The marshes are the result of the sinking of the Upper Miocene and Lower Pliocene continental plate, which resulted in a depression later filled with fluvial and aeolian deposits. In addition, Doñana has an exceptionally wide range of well-preserved coastal freshwater and swampy ecosystems, where, in addition to the vast expanse of marshes, permanent and, especially, temporary lagoons abound which may appear in particularly rainy years. This heterogeneity of environments makes it one of the most important centres of biodiversity in Europe. Likewise, its various sandy ecosystems dominated by the Mediterranean scrub, with the presence of brushwood and open forests, are very suitable habitats for carnivorous species such as the Iberian Lynx (Lynx pardinus) and large ungulates. In the coastal area, the constant deposition of sandbanks and the generation of very dynamic and active mobile trains of dunes are distinctive. These dune systems are among the largest in continental Europe and clearly show the primary and secondary stages of vegetation succession in the region.

Criterion (x): The Park is home to a great diversity of flora and fauna, in particular an avifauna made up of around 360 nesting and migratory species. It has breeding populations of several globally threatened faunal species such as Marbled Teal (Marmorenetta angustirostris), White-headed Duck (Oxyura leucocephala), Iberian Imperial Eagle (Aquila adlberti) and Iberian Lynx (Lynx pardinus). The flora includes Chicoria hueca (Avellara fistulosa), Onopordun hinojense, Adenocarpus gibssianus, and Rorippa valdes-bermejoi. Doñana and in particular its marshes are recognized as a wetland of international importance for many species of waterfowl, breeding and wintering, and it is a bottleneck on the migratory route between Western Europe and West Africa, with concentrations of about 500,000 wintering birds per year. Mentioning only the best-known kingdoms, more than 1,400 species of flora have been identified, representing 114 families of superior plants, some endemic and new to science. This diversity of species is also reflected in the variety of environments representative of saline, sweet, lentic or lotic aquatic ecosystems, or xerophilic, hydrophilic, dune or forest terrestrial ecosystems. The extraordinary richness of the fauna of Doñana is a direct consequence of the diversity of the mosaic of habitats and ecosystems that it shelters. Birds are probably the best-known group, with some 360 species, but there are also 38 different species of mammals. The Doñana area is considered one of the most important in Spain for reptiles and amphibians, having been classified as an area of exceptional herpetological interest with 42 species. Among the fish communities present, it is worth noting the Apricaphanius baeticus, and the sea lamprey. In Doñana there are also a large number of invertebrate species, terrestrial and aquatic, which include more than 1,200 taxa.

Encyclopedia Record: Doñana National Park

Doñana National Park or Parque Nacional y Natural de Doñana is a natural reserve in Andalusia, southern Spain, in the provinces of Huelva, Cádiz and Seville. It covers 543 km2 (209.65 sq mi), of which 135 km2 (52.12 sq mi) are a protected area. It is named after Doña Ana de Silva y Mendoza, wife of the 7th Duke of Medina Sidonia.

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IUCN World Heritage Outlook

The 2025 Conservation Outlook on Doñana National Park reports the following assessment:

Source: International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) · View assessment