Valle Gran Rey Rural Park

Rural Parks are natural areas in which farming, livestock and fishing activities co-exist with other activities of special natural and ecological interest, creating a landscape of great eco-cultural interest that requires conservation.  The Valle Gran Rey Rural Park covers an area of 1,992.8 hectares, rising from sea level to an altitude of 1,020 metres.  It is set on the two main mountains that border  the Valley:  La Merica and Teguerguenche, but it also encompasses part gully that runs from La Casa de La Seda down to El Risco de Guadá.

From a wildlife point of view, the Rural Park is the last refuge of the most endangered vertebrates on the planet: the giant lizard of La Gomera.  There is a Recovery Centre for the lizards at the base of Risco de la Merica.

Garajonay National Park

The Park forms part of the network of National Parks, set in the central mountain peaks of the island.  It was declared a national Heritage site in 1986 because of its singularity and its biological diversity, but, above all, because of the importance of its laurel forests.  The laurel forests are a relic that has survived from the former geological ages, as one of the last remains of the sub-tropical forests that disappeared from the earth almost entirely with the Ice Ages.

El Charco del Conde- Site of Scientific Interest

It covers an area of 10.7 hectares, encompassing an area from sea level up to an altitude of 18 metres.  The aim of this site is to protect communities of tamarix canariesis (tamarisk trees), traganum moquini and salsola opositifolia.

Charco del Cieno- Site of Scientific Interes

This is a costal ecosystem, on the coast of Valle Gran Rey, with halophyllic flora (Tamarix Canariensis) and a small dune formation.

El Lomo del Carretón Natural Monument

This is a cliff situated between 450 metres and 850 metres, over Taguluche, sheltering a large number of endemic plant species.  The vegetation of the courses of the gullies and slopes of crags consists predominantly of cane, Canary willow, rushes, Canary Island St. John´s wort, blackberries, balos, spiny lettuce, prickly pears, spurges, cactus spurge, candle plants, sticky broom, Canary Island pine and Monterrey Pine.  But the most outstanding plant in this area is the Palm or Canary Island date palm (Phoenix Canariensis) that spread  naturally until it turned the gullies into real forests.