Sierra Nevada National Park makes it onto IUCN's List of protected Reserves

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has added the Sierra Nevada National Park to its official list of 23 world-wide protected nature reserves, much to the delight of conservationists in the Granada Province and other parts of Spain. The Sierra Nevada region is justly famous for its wonderful ski resorts but the National Park is equally responsible for attracting much-needed tourism to the province.

Selected on account of its ability to balance the area's "fragile mountain ecosystem" with the needs to generate tourism, while at the same time preserving a "rich and cultural heritage", the Granada Province's pride and joy will no doubt feature even more in wildlife magazines and travel sites around the globe now.

The IUCN's decision to add the dramatic and rugged landscapes of the Parque Nacional Sierra Nevada to the exclusive list has also encouraged conservationists in Huelva to hope their Donana National Park will make it onto the list next year.

Unique Flora and Fauna of the Sierra Nevada Mountains

Stretching from the Granada Province all the way across to the Almeria Province, the Parque Nacional Sierra Nevada covers 85,883 hectares of south-eastern Spain and has been a national park since 14th January 1999. It is the largest of Spain's national parks and home to a wide variety of plants and animals that migrated to southern Europe during the last ice-age, making the national park a unique habitat. The Granada Park is home to 2,100 plant species, of which 116 are on the threatened list and more than 60 are endemic to the Sierra Nevada reserve.

The National Park is home to threatened plant species like the Artemisia granatensis, which is a sub-species of the Marsh Gentian and unique to the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The Snow Star (Plantago nivalis) is one of the most recognisable rare plants and has become something of an emblem for the park. The Botanic Garden of Cortijuela, located at the edge of the National Park, preserves the Sierra Nevada's endemic plant species and conservationists study them here.

Animals like the Spanish Ibex have found a safe haven in the Granada Province and the park has a thriving population of this magnificent mammal, along with other threatened species like wildcats, martens, wild boar and the more common badgers. Bird watchers come here to observe native bird species like the rare Bonelli's Eagle and the Golden Eagle, the Little Owl, European Goldfinch, Common Kestrel, Wheateater, Common Quail and magnificent Eurasian Eagle-Owl.

While across the border in France there are five internationally recognised national parks, for Spain this is an exciting moment in natural history.

A great Holiday Destination

The Sierra Nevada and Granada Province are just 1.5 hours' drive from the Costa del Sol and holiday home owners with a property in Marbella can easily spend a weekend skiing and then return to get a tan at the beach. The Sierra Nevada Ski Station is in fact Europe's southernmost ski resort and, thanks to its great altitude, attracts skiing tourism from the start of November all the way through to the beginning of May.

Increasingly, the Sierra Nevada Mountains, especially the foothills of the Alpujarras, are being discovered by hikers and climbers, who come during the months when there's no skiing to enjoy tackling the sheer-sided gorges and stony slopes of the National Park. There some some spectacular sights to behold from some of the summits, for the Sierra Nevada peaks are among the highest in Europe (second only to the Alps). From torrential rivers and turquoise waters of glacial lakes slumbering between snow-capped peaks, the Sierra Nevada National Park and Granada Province have it all.

Holiday apartments in the ski resorts are not cheap, but present a good long-term investment, given that the world-wide property market is forecast to pick up again in 2015 and the area enjoys year-round tourism - and therefore holiday rental returns for investors. Typically just an hour's drive from the City of Granada, the resorts consists mainly of a couple of boutique hotels and a few shops. Small apartment developments with spectacular mountains views are clustered around these local amenities.