Ecotourist Commitment
Discover nature in our Sierra!
Sierra has been a Natural Park promoting ecotourism since 1989
This mountain range was declared a Natural Park in 1989 and since then it has been developing a work of management and conservation of its natural values, recognized by various figures of protection and recognition that has been added since then.
For many years, the area has been committed to ecotourism as a model for the development of tourism, a philosophy that is permanently present in the way the companies located in this area work, as well as in the products and services that are implemented both by the private initiative itself and by the public administration.
Through its association of tourism companies we are a destination adhered to Soy Ecoturista with more than 20 companies certified by the Association of Ecotourism in Spain.
The Sierra de Aracena y Picos de Aroche Natural Park has been part of the Dehesas de Sierra Morena Biosphere Reserve since 2002. Shortly thereafter, this territory was granted other protected status, such as Special Protection Area for Birds in 2003 (ZEPA Sierra de Aracena and Picos de Aroche), or Sites of Community Importance in 2006 (SCI Sierra de Aracena and Picos de Aroche). It also has a natural monument since 2001, the Holm Oak and Cork Oak Dehesa de San Francisco, which represents the uniqueness of the landscape of this area.
Figures of protection and recognition of their natural values
The territory is home to numerous protection and recognition figures that confirm the importance of its natural and cultural values, the need to protect them and guarantee continuous work to ensure their conservation.
The Sierra de Aracena y Picos de Aroche Natural Park, declared in 1989, has been part of the Dehesas de Sierra Morena Biosphere Reserve declared by UNESCO since 2002. Shortly thereafter the territory became part of the Natura 2000 Network through the Special Protection Area for Birds Sierra de Aracena and Picos de Aroche, declared in 2003, and theSite of Community Importance Sierra de Aracena and Picos de Aroche, declared in 2006.
It also has since 2001 with the Natural Monument Holm Oak and Cork Oak Dehesa de San Francisco, which represents the uniqueness of the landscape of this area.
The region's commitment to authentic ecotourism
Since 2004, when it obtained the European Charter for Sustainable Tourism, the Natural Park Sierra de Aracena and Picos de Aroche began working, uninterrupted since then, as an Ecotourism destination. The CETS instrument contributed in those first moments very positively to the development of tourism in this territory, by granting it a model of sustainable tourism management.
The businessmen saw it from the beginning as an opportunity to move towards an orderly and respectful growth of the destination. This made possible, with the dynamization and coordination of the Association of Tourism Companies of the Sierra, the certification and adhesion to the CETS in 2009, of 10 companies, which learned and were trained in sustainability, planning and dissemination of their ecotourism offer.
This association, which brings together most of the tourism companies of this destination, has not ceased in its efforts to manage the work of the tourism sector in this territory with criteria of sustainability and balance. It does so from a collaborative perspective, involving companies, but also the various public administrations responsible for tourism in this region (municipalities, Provincial Council of Huelva, Delegation of Tourism of the Andalusian Government in Huelva ...).
Such commitment led AETS to work with other destinations in Spain in working towards the concept of Ecotourism, and to join with them in the Ecotourism Club in Spain, which works with the brand Soy Ecoturista (I am Ecotourist). With these supports, this local association has promoted initiatives aimed at fostering the regulation and planning of Ecotourism in the Andalusian autonomous community. In 2021, it organized, together with the Association of Ecotourism in Spain, the I Ecotourism Forum of Andalusia, the main result of which was the commitment of the regional administration to take up the baton of Ecotourism in the autonomous community of Andalusia.The main result was the commitment of the regional administration to take up the baton and work in this direction, as well as the Declaration of Aracena, the roadmap that should guide the work for Ecotourism in Andalusia.
It has recently reactivated this work, in the company of the AEE and Ecotourism associations of Andalusia, obtaining again the commitment of the autonomous administration to regulate ecotourism activity and plan its promotion correctly.
Currently, the destination and the companies are directly certified by the Association of Ecotourism in Spain, thus guaranteeing that they continue to meet the necessary requirements of sustainability, commitment to nature conservation and local development. AETS is the reference entity for this certification, working in collaboration with the Natural Park and other entities in the area.