ICNF - Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e das Florestas

ICNF is the Portuguese public institute responsible for nature conservation and forest management, including the national network of protected areas. It runs public information campaigns, wildfire monitoring, and biodiversity conservation programmes across the country.

Ecosystems & Biodiversity

The Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e das Florestas (ICNF) is Portugal's public institute for nature conservation and forest management. Based in Algés, it oversees the national network of protected areas, forest policy, hunting and fishing regulation, and the CITES convention on trade in endangered species. ICNF publishes real-time data on rural fires, including area burned and number of occurrences by year, drawing on the Sistema de Gestão de Informação de Incêndios Florestais (SGIF). It also runs the AIGP/OIGP 2.0 programme with municipalities and maintains a support platform for emergencies in forested territories, including recovery efforts after events such as storm Kristin. Beyond fire management, the institute coordinates biodiversity conservation work, such as the LIFE Iberconejo project addressing wild rabbit population decline, and shares educational content on species found in Portugal, from insects like the Ephippigerida cricket genus to landscape-level ecosystem management. It promotes its protected areas brand and offers an online geographic information catalogue (Geocatálogo) alongside licensing forms and public services. As a state body, ICNF coordinates with regional directors, municipalities, firefighting structures such as the FSBF, and civil protection authorities on issues ranging from wildfire response to hunting management and the conservation of protected landscapes like the Parque Natural do Vale do Guadiana.

Our Goal

ICNF manages Portugal's natural and forest heritage, overseeing the national network of protected areas, forest policy, hunting and fishing regulation, and wildfire prevention and response.