It involves travel to natural areas to enjoy, to respect and appreciate nature. This tourism seeks to promote the conservation and sustainability of natural areas.

Currently, there are about 10,000 in the world protected natural areas. They are divided into national parks, natural parks, nature reserves and natural habitats.

National Parks

National parks are large areas managed by the state. The visits are allowed under certain conditions dictated by the Autonomous Community.

These areas represent natural systems Spaniards. In Spain you can find 14 national parks scattered throughout the territory.

Natural parks

They are less extensive that the national parks. They are characterized by being managed by the autonomous community to which they belong. They view that the visitor knows the natural environment.

These are areas that have not undergone processing occupations or human holdings. There are over a hundred of these parks along Spain.

Wildlife protection

These are areas that are closed to the public in order to protect ecosystems, communities or biological elements that deserve special mention.

In most cases are found in areas near national parks. These spaces can also receive the name of national reserves.

Natural Parajes

They are genuine works of art sculpted by the very nature such as waterfalls, mountains or canyons. They can be isolated or integrated into nature reserves.

They tend to be areas of great beauty and small size, because the latter circumstance, can not be classified as national parks.

Remarks

A tourism directly linked with ecotourism is the ornithological tourism, which is focused on the sighting and observing birds.