Reunion National Park

Reunion National Park, established on 5 March 2007, protects the endemic ecosystems of Les Hauts, the mountainous interior of Reunion, a French overseas department in the western Indian Ocean, with a core area of about 1,054 square kilometers and a buffer zone of roughly 877 square kilometers together covering more than 75 percent of the island. The park includes two major volcanoes, Piton des Neiges, which rises above 3,000 meters, and the still-active Piton de la Fournaise, along with four heritage areas, the Cirque de Cilaos, the Cirque de Salazie, the Mare Longue forest and La Grande Chaloupe. It was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2010 under the name Pitons, cirques and remparts of Reunion Island, and it supports 230 endemic plant species and 18 endemic bird species across more than 900 kilometers of marked hiking trails.