10 years of Valencian Plant Microreserves

PMR 'Illa Ferrera', included in the Nature Reserve of Columbretes Islands, was the first protected microreserve. © E, Laguna. 10.1997

The first legal rule to protect a plant microreserve worldwide under the legal name 'microreserve' was passed by the Valencian councilior of environment the 16.11.1998, and entered in force after its publication in the official gazette (Diario Oficial de la Generalitat Valenciana), 02.12.1998. That first Order established the official declaration of 14 PMRs in the province of Castellon. The first one was the island 'Illa Ferrera', forming part of the Nature Reserve of Columbretes Islands. Ferrera is a small island (ca. 1 ha) conserving the last remainders of the extinct climax vegetation of Columbretes archipelago -a brushland dominated by Pistacia lentiscus, Smilax aspera and Chamaerops humilis-, as well as good representativeness of the most valuable local endemics, Lobularia maritima subsp. columbretensis, and the luzerne tree Medicago citrina.