Cabrera’s maritime-terrestrial national park protects a largely undeveloped limestone archipelago and an extensive marine area south of Mallorca, including exceptionally well-preserved seagrass, reef, cave and deep-water habitats.
L'arxipèlag de Cabrera
Why it is protected
Preserve representative island and marine ecosystems of the western Mediterranean.
Protect seabirds, seagrass, reef communities and deep seabed following the park’s 2019 expansion.
Habitats and significant life
Habitats: Posidonia seagrass meadow, Rocky reef, Submarine cave, Coralligenous habitat, Deep-sea slope.
Significant species: Balearic shearwater, Dusky grouper, Loggerhead turtle, Bottlenose dolphin, Posidonia oceanica.
Rules and activities
Navigation, anchoring, fishing, diving and landing are managed through national-park zoning and permits.
Some sectors have stronger extraction controls than others.
Governance
Balearic Islands national-park authority; Spanish National Parks Network; Spanish maritime authorities.
Pressures
Marine heatwaves; Anchoring and boating; Fishing pressure outside reserves; Invasive species; Plastic pollution.
Protection effectiveness
These dimensions are intentionally separate: a valid designation or active management program does not, by itself, prove ecological recovery.
Habitats and marine life connections
Ecologically related protected areas
These places share documented habitat types or the same ocean region. The relationship is ecological context, not proof of direct connectivity.
Condition and evidence
MLL reports what the available evidence supports. It does not infer ecological health from designation or mapped coverage.
Insufficient evidence
Place-specific ecology and management evidence has been reviewed, but the available indicators do not support a single current ecological trend for the whole protected area.
Ecological Condition
Insufficient evidenceMonitoring is expanding across shallow and newly added deep habitats
- Evidence period
- seabed mapping reported 2026
- Geographic scope
- Protected feature or area described by the source
- Confidence
- moderate
- Reviewed
- 2026-09-12
Management Effectiveness
Positive evidenceNavigation, anchoring, fishing, diving and landing are managed through park rules and permits
- Evidence period
- current national-park framework
- Geographic scope
- Protected feature or area described by the source
- Confidence
- high
- Reviewed
- 2026-09-12
How to read this: Insufficient evidence means the available evidence cannot support a conclusion. It does not mean the MPA is in poor condition.
Monitoring is expanding across shallow and newly added deep habitats. Confidence: moderate. New mapping improves the evidence base but does not yet establish one park-wide trend.
Navigation, anchoring, fishing, diving and landing are managed through park rules and permits. Confidence: high. The existence of controls is reported separately from ecological outcomes.
Sources
Cabrera Maritime-Terrestrial National Park — Spanish Ministry for Ecological Transition. Verified 2026-09-13.