Sítio Ria Formosa

The site is notable for its long strip of barrier islands, with permanently submerged sandbanks and reasonably well-preserved dune habitats, which ensure the protection of an estuary into which some watercourses flow and a vast area of salty habitats subject to the influence of the tides. These include salty or brackish lagoons and extensively explored salt pans, mudflats and sands exposed at low tide and salt marshes where halophyte vegetation dominates.