Pico Island Pico Island Pico Island ("Ilha do Pico," ), is an island in the Central Group of the Portuguese Azores. The landscape features an eponymous volcano, Ponta do Pico, which is the highest mountain in Portugal, the Azores, and the highest elevation of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. In the tradition of the Portuguese poet, Raul Brandão, Pico is referred to as the Ilha Preta ("Black Island"), for its black volcanic earth, responsible for its UNESCO-designated historical vineyards that allowed the development of the island. After depositing herds on the island in the first half of the 15th century, the first colonies were
Protected areas of the Azores today constitute the nucleus of the Island Nature Parks on each island. It was followed by Regional Legislative Decree 21/93/A (23 December 1993), which applied to the Azores the same jurisdictional regime established in national Decree 19/93 (23 January 1993), the "Rede Nacional de Áreas Protegidas" ("National Network of Protected Areas"). More than an adaption of the national regulations, it created the institutional structure that would give rise to Azorean protected areas, resulting in a reclassification of existing areas. Unfortunately, there were problems with the scheme, since the codification was not literally adaptable to the insular nature of the archipelago