El Vizcaíno Biosphere Reserve is one of the largest protected areas in Latin America, covering more than 2.5 million hectares of the central Baja California peninsula. It encompasses desert, coastal lagoons, islands, and offshore waters, and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993 in recognition of its importance as a breeding ground for gray whales, loggerhead sea turtles, and elephant seals, as well as habitat for ospreys, peregrine falcons, and enormous concentrations of migratory shorebirds.
The lagoons within the reserve — Ojo de Liebre and San Ignacio — are the core of the whale-watching industry. The desert interior is home to pronghorn antelope (the only population in Baja) and a variety of desert species. For most visitors, the biosphere reserve is synonymous with the whale lagoon, but the birdwatching along the salt ponds and coastal margins is excellent year-round, and the empty desert roads through the reserve interior offer a quality of solitude increasingly difficult to find on the Baja peninsula.