The URDAIBAI Biosphere Reserve is the most important natural area in the Basque Autonomous Community, and in 1989 became the first in the region to receive protected natural area status. In recent years it has obtained international recognition to add to the URDAIBAI. Biosphere Reserve Protection and Structuring Act (Act 5/1989 of 6th July), including principally:

• Declaration of Biosphere Reserve status by UNESCO in 1984
  [www.unesco.org/mab/]
• Approval by the Cabinet in 1992 of the inclusion of the Mundaka-Gernika estuary on the RAMSAR Convention’s List of Wetlands of International Importance
  [www.ramsar.org/key_sitelist.htm]
• Incorporation of the URDAIBAI Biosphere Reserve into the network of Special Protection Areas (SPA’s) for Birds in 1994, which entailed automatic inclusion in the NATURA 2000 network of European protected natural areas
  Urdaibai nature