The Sierra Nevada National Park, declared in 1999, is located between the provinces of Granada and Almería. Runs from La Alpujarra of Granada to the valley of Lecrín in the province of Granada, and from the region of La Alpujarra Almeriense to Los Filabres-Tabernas in the province of Almería. This privileged natural space covers an area of 85,883 hectares. And around the National Park is the Natural Park that protects 88,965 hectares more. In total both areas have 171,829 hectares.

In the mountains are the highest peaks of the entire Iberian Peninsula: the Mulhacén (3482 m) and the Veleta (3392 m). In the mountain group, with more than 20 peaks that exceed two thousand meters of altitude, there are traces of glacial erosion, such as “U” shaped valleys, cirques or lagoons.

In the higher parts snow is maintained for most of the year resulting in a rich water reserve. The ecosystem is home to a great biological diversity, including high mountain grassland, woodlands, deciduous forests, Mediterranean scrubland. More than 2000 plants have been cataloged of the approximately 8000 that can be found throughout the peninsula. This makes this area one of the most valuable floras in the whole European continent.

In 1989, the Parliament of Andalusia already declared Sierra Nevada as a Natural Park due to these singularities of its flora, fauna, geomorphology and landscape.

The Sierra Nevada Protected Natural Environment (ENP) Information Point in Pampaneira is managed by Nevadensis. They are responsible for providing advice and documentation to all visitors.

Nevadensis is an active tourism company, ski school and mountain travel agency. It was founded in 1989. They have guides specialising in various activities, with a wide range of experiences on offer, such as low, medium and high mountain hiking, ice and rock climbing, via ferrata, alpine and mountain skiing and canyoning. They also offer training courses and guided themed itineraries on water, architecture and history, both on foot and with the support of vehicles. Tourism Award from the Provincial Tourist Board of Granada, in 2015.

Nevadensis. Mountain Guides. Plaza de la Libertad. Pampaneira. Telephone: 656 10 96 62. Website: https://nevadensis.com 

Sierra Nevada was declared a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO in 1986, becoming part of the catalogue of protected areas on the planet, along with 759 natural spaces spread across 131 countries ─in 2025─.

These preserved areas are home to both biodiversity conservation and the use of natural resources. They are ‘learning places for sustainable development’ within the framework of natural ecosystems that are found in their own socio-economic contexts, where more than 250 million people live and work.

These are sites for testing interdisciplinary approaches with the aim of understanding and managing changes and interactions between social and ecological systems, including conflict prevention and biodiversity management. Each site promotes solutions that reconcile biodiversity conservation with its sustainable use.

The Sierra Nevada Biosphere Reserve is located between the Vega de Granada on its western side, the confluence of the Nacimiento and Andarax rivers in Almería on the eastern side, the Marquesado de Zenete plateau to the north and the La Alpujarra crops to the south.

The Mediterranean vegetation that populates the area ranges from subtropical crops to the ‘cold high mountain desert’ where botanical endemisms occur. The altitude gradient forms mosaics of ecosystems in just 30 km.