A coastal, marine, and island reserve on Uruguay's Atlantic shore where dunes, wetlands, and ocean wildlife converge.
Cabo Polonio National Park
Cabo Polonio National Park is a protected area on the Atlantic coast of southeastern Uruguay, established in 2009 as part of the country's National System of Protected Areas. The park encompasses a mosaic of coastal, marine, and island environments, integrating sandy beaches, rocky headlands, dune systems, coastal lagoons, and offshore islands, together with a band of Atlantic Ocean extending out from the shore.
The protected landscape falls within the larger Bañados del Este Biosphere Reserve, recognized by UNESCO in 1976, and overlaps with a Ramsar wetland site designated in 1984. Together, these designations highlight the region's significance for both biodiversity conservation and internationally recognized wetland habitats.
Within the park sits the small settlement of Cabo Polonio, and the surrounding territory includes private as well as state-owned land. The park's identity is shaped by the interaction between ocean and land, with mobile dunes, interdunal wetlands, coastal forest patches, palm savannas, rocky outcrops, and a network of oceanic islands that together create a richly varied coastal ecosystem.
