Menorca Tourism Guide - Menorca Ecotourism

Menorca Landscape & Nature Reserves

Menorca is a tiny island in comparison to Majorca. It's only 702 km square and has 216 km of coast, but oh what a coastline. Really the island has two different characters within. The north is wild, with a rugged coastline and with beaches of reddish sand. The whole effect is spectacular and offers some of the best walking country in the Med. In the south it's much less mountainous, with a covering of pine covered cliffs, beaches of golden sand and shallower crystal clear waters.

Menorca, thank heavens, is protected and the whole island was designated a Biosphere Reserve back in 1993. UNESCO defines a Biosphere Reserve as 'a place of important natural and cultural heritage where economic development is compatible with nature conservation'. Menorca is 1 of 411 places in 96 countries that has been designated a Biosphere Reserve. What is actually being done to ensure long-term protection of Menorca's environment, apart from declaring Menorca a Biosphere Reserve, is less clear!

There's caves and coves in Majorca, and you'll find more in Menorca where there are over fifty land caves and tens of sub-aqua caves scattered across the north and the south of the island. These caves are home to many a small species!

Environmental Protection of Menorca

The key focus for protection by the Biosphere Reserve is getting a handle on the negative impacts of tourism, typically focused around the island's beaches and their fragile ecosystems. The key problems to face are residue accumulation, marine contamination and the accompanying threat to sea species, especially the important posidonia sea plant which serves as a natural filter, as well as coastal construction and damage to flowers and plants in the dune systems. It's good to read up a little about these issues before your visit to the island, after all it's the key to the very beauty you see on the island of Menorca!

The Posidonia is a plant with leaves, flowers and fruits, but it's not just any plant, it serves as a key natural filter! This magnificent plant flourishes from the sea surface to a depth of fifty meters where photosynthesis can still occur. Tthe Posidonia plant is most definitely a crucial ecosystem in the Mediterranean and very important to marine life, as well as protecting the coastline by acting as a vast natural filter. Itis also a source of food, a habitat and a refuge for a variety of marine life.

Menorca Wetlands & Environmental Museum

Just north of Mao on the coast is the Parc Natural de S'Albufera des Grau, a most important wetlands reserve area in Menorca, home to many birds and superb hiking and bird watching territory. Ponds, marshes and lagoons are found all over Menorca, and a must see on your trip to Menorca is the albufera de Es Grau natural park. Discover a host of indigenous species including many prickly shrubs and the Mediterranean 'maquia', birds of prey and sea birds of course.

Once in S'Albufera des Grau, visitors can choose from three well-marked path walks, as well as beaches, farmland, bays and of course the wetlands visited by many a migratory bird!

This park is superb walking territory and you can take the old horse path taking you past old watchtowers, along the coast to Cala Tamarells and Cala de sa Torreta. Press on to Sa Torre Blanca and it's superb taula and talayot remains.

Menorca Dunes

Menorca has a total of eight well-established dune systems, seven on the north coast and one on the south. There are other of smaller dimensions, too, all of which are exceptionally well-kept.