One of the greatest tourist attractions of the Island of Madeira lies in its spectacular landscape. Its luxurious vegetation continues to fascinate all those closely drawn to nature.
This archipelago, included in the bio-geographic region of Macaronesia, retains a natural heritage of great scientific value, distinguished by UNESCO as World Natural Heritage.



Madeira's indigenous Laurissilva forest, occupying an area of 15 thousand hectares, forms part of this vast layer of vegetation that covers the island. This ancient forest dates back to the Tertiary Era and includes very large trees amongst which is the Til, (Ocotea foetens), the Laurel-Tree, (Laurus azorica) and the Brazilian Mahogany, (Persea indica). Surrounding the trees are mosses and many other bushes, including heather and ferns.
Amongst the bird life there are rare species such as the Long-toed pigeon, (Columba trocaz) and Zino's petrel or the Madeira Freira petrel, (Pterodroma madeira).
In a continuous effort to preserve nature in its primitive form, five different areas of the Region were declared Nature Reserves. These are the Reserves of the Desertas and Selvagens Islands, the Nature Reserve of Rocha do Navio and the Garajau and Ponta de São Lourenço Reserves. Through them, the various endemic forms of flora and fauna are identified.
But beyond this invaluable heritage, the island of Madeira also contains a vast array of exotic plants of every form and colour, the majority of which originate from various other parts of the world and have adapted here as well as they do in their native environment.
"Macaronésia" is an ancient geographic region in which Madeira Islands are included, and whose unique characteristic is that it preserves the remains of a great forest dating back to the Tertiary Era before the great ice ages. This forest once covered huge extensions of the European Continent. But glaciations led to the massive destruction of the vegetation that once covered Europe. But thanks to the beneficial influence of an ocean climate, these same species were able to survive in the Atlantic Islands.
And so Madeira Island survived as the only region in the world where one can find representative samples of this ancient forest. It is well preserved and contains a large number of species.
The Laurissilva forest occupies a coastal strip from 300 to 1300 metres above sea level, and plays a crucial role in soil preservation and the capture and filtration of rainfall on the island. Considered a living relic, almost all of it has been classified as part of the Madeira Nature Reserve, and is deemed a Total Preservation Area.
This is a unique rarity which has not yet been entirely quantified. It was awarded the distinction of UNESCO World Natural Heritage, on the 2nd December, 1999.This new position of the Region in relation to the rest of the world, enables it to be seen for its true and specific value, as a biocultural heritage for all humanity.

in www.madeiratourism.org

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