Ecotourism in Madeira

Madeira Island has several attributes for the people who look for this kind of tourism, for example the “Laurissilva” forest, a reliquary from the Tertiary Age, which has species which existed in the primitive flora of southern Europe and North of Africa and are now extinguished due to climate alterations (the glaciations in Europe and the start of the desertification of the Sahara) and nowadays existing only in the Macaronesia.

Madeira indigenous forest is nowadays the most extensive and well preserved forest from the archipelagos which constitute Macaronesia. Given its importance, it makes part of the Rede Natura 2000 and has been classified as Biogenetic Reserve of the European Council in 1992 and as World Heritage by UNESCO in 1999.

The “Laurissilva” forest together with the “Levadas”, which are water courses built by man around the mountains to take water to the inaccessible agricultural lands, are nowadays one of the greatest natural attraction of the Island.

On the other side, the existence of the marine reserves of Garajau and Rocha do Navio in Madeira Island, as well as the natural reserves of the Desertas and Selvagens, make our sea also a place to intensely practice ecotourism.