Dehesas de Sierra Morena Biosphere Reserve

Travelling by horse between the mountains north of Huelva, Seville and Córdoba, there is a space known as the Dehesa de Sierra Morena, declared a Biosphere Reserve by the UNESCO in 2002. The particular agricultural utilisation of the area, as well as its great natural wealth, brought about this declaration. It is recognised as a stargazing destination by the Starlight Foundation.

With a total area of 424,000 hectares, the Dehesas de Sierra Morena is the largest of all the spaces that form a part of the Spanish Biosphere Reserve Network. Its territory, which also includes another 8,000 hectares of non-protected areas, is comprised of three natural parks north of Andalusia: Sierra de Hornachuelos, in Córdoba; Sierra Norte, in Seville; and Sierra de Aracena and Picos de Aroche, in Huelva. The Sierra de Hornachuelas gives the reserve a mid-mountain Mediterranean ecosystem with a variety of flora and fauna that become denser in the Vega of Guadalquivir region. The chestnut trees form forests that fill the landscape of Sierra of Aracena and Picos de Aroche, north of Huelva Province, and in the Seville sector, in Sierra Norte, there are mainly Holm oak forests and in the more humid areas, Gall oaks flourish. Undoubtedly, the most representative and common image of the reserve is that of the Dehesa. This natural Mediterranean scenery, comprised of extensive pastures populated by Holm and oak forests, has for centuries been the base of the area's economy, due to the proper agricultural use of this space. It is the uniqueness of the Dehesa within the international agriculture context that was one of the factors leading to the declaration of this space as a biosphere reserve. This space embodies a model of sustainable development, fostering human development without any prejudice to the conservation of its great biodiversity.