Douro Internacional

The Douro Internacional Natural Park was created in 1998 in north-eastern Portugal and protects some 851 km² along the stretch where the Douro and its tributary the Águeda form the border with Spain, between the districts of Bragança and Guarda.

Here the river has cut a system of deep canyons — the arribes — into the granite and schist basement of the plateau, with vertical walls several hundred metres high. That confinement creates a sheltered microclimate on the valley floors, far warmer than the surrounding tableland, where almonds, olives and Mediterranean crops thrive alongside a scrub of holm oak and juniper.

The canyon walls hold one of the greatest concentrations of cliff-nesting birds on the Iberian Peninsula, with important colonies of griffon vulture, Egyptian vulture, black stork, Bonelli's eagle, peregrine falcon and eagle owl. That richness is the main argument for protection and is managed in coordination with the Arribes del Duero Natural Park, on the other side of the border. Since 2015 the area has formed part of the Meseta Ibérica Transboundary Biosphere Reserve.