Province of the Azores sub-prefects. The Province of the Azores was abolished on 28 June 1833 by Decree 64, which divided the archipelago into two separate provinces: the Província Oriental dos Açores (Eastern Province of the Azores), that included the islands of São Miguel and Santa Maria, with its capital in Ponta Delgada; and the Província Ocidental dos Açores (Western Province of the Azores), with its capital in Angra and administrating the remaining islands of the archipelago. Prefect: Sub-Prefect of Ponta Delgada: Sub-Prefect of Horta: Province of the Azores The Province of the Azores was an administrative unit of Portugal encompassing the archipelago of
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