Nature Reserves are nature areas that are set up to protect ecosystems, communities or biological elements that due to their rarity, fragility, importance or uniqueness deserve special treatment.

An area is declared a Nature Reserve Park by Andalusian Parliament Law.

Protected Nature Reserves are areas that, although they do not fulfil the objective requirements for other types of state or regional legal protection, deserve special protection, and their owners apply to the Department of Environment for inclusion in a protection system.

An area is declared a Protected Nature Reserve following an Agreement from the Governing Council, and through collaboration agreements between the Department of Environment and the interested party, which establish the applicable protection systems and permitted uses in accordance with each area's particular characteristics.