The Senate has approved the declaration of Monfragüe as a National Park. It thus becomes the fourteenth space to become part of the National Parks Network and the first located in the Autonomous Community of Extremadura.

The Council of Ministers, at the proposal of the Ministry of the Environment, sent the draft Law on the Declaration of the Monfragüe National Park to the Parliament in May 2006. This natural area in the province of Cáceres, populated mainly by holm oaks and cork oaks, is an extraordinary example of Mediterranean forest. On 12 January 2006, the Regional Government of Extremadura sent the Government the proposal to declare Monfragüe a National Park. This proposal was favourably approved, on 22 December 2005, by the Legislative Assembly of the aforementioned Autonomous Community, as required by Article 22.5 of Law 4/1989, of 27 March, on the Conservation of Natural Areas and Wild Flora and Fauna. Based on this proposal, the Ministry of the Environment together with the Junta de Extremadura prepared a draft Law on the Declaration of the Monfragüe National Park.

The uniqueness and wealth of fauna of Monfragüe, the variety of its plant formations, the spectacular landscape and the geomorphological interest, constitute a natural and cultural heritage of undoubted scientific, recreational and educational value, which justifies declaring its conservation of general interest to the Nation. With this, one of the best examples of Spanish natural heritage will be incorporated into the Network of National Parks.

Monfragüe is home to a great environmental diversity, particularly from the point of view of fauna. The most important black vulture colony on the planet nests in the park, with about three hundred pairs, and the density of breeding birds of prey is one of the highest known. A dozen pairs of imperial eagle (an endangered species with a planetary population of no more than two hundred pairs), about thirty pairs of the very rare black stork, more than five hundred pairs of griffon vulture, more than thirty pairs of Egyptian vultures, and unique and notorious populations of golden eagles, eagle owls, short-toed eagles, booted eagle, red kite, and black-winged kite, among other species, make up a sufficient story to glimpse the biological value of the space.

This is the first law declaring a national park to be processed by Parliament after the rulings issued by the Constitutional Court in relation to national parks and the management model that should govern these protected areas. Both in its content and in its formulation, it has been intended to give them a perfect fit within the framework of competence of the respective Administrations, ensuring the mechanisms of collaboration and cooperation between them, as well as the requirements of the draft Law on the Network of National Parks, which is currently also being processed in Parliament.