The Regional Director for the Environment highlighted in Horta the "value of the natural heritage" of the Azores on the date that marks the World Nature Conservation Day. He stressed the symbolic importance of the opening of the Support House for descents to Caldeira do Faial as a contribution to companies that carry out nature-related activities in this protected area.
 
Hernâni Jorge stressed that the descents to Caldeira do Faial have "more than doubled" from 2015 to this year, noting that the Support House has a room for briefings, an area for several information panels as well as sanitary facilities.
 
During the ceremony, the Government also presented the programme of the celebrations of the 45th anniversary of the classification of the first Protected Areas of the Azores, namely the nature reserves of Caldeira do Faial and Pico Mountain.
 
"Nothing better than to highlight the role of nature conservation and natural heritage in our Region in the one that was the first classified area in the Azores on the World Nature Conservation Day," said Jorge Hernâni.
 
Caldeira do Faial is located in the central part of the island. It has an area of about 330 hectares, a diameter of about two kilometres and an average depth of 400 metres. It is covered with lush Laurel vegetation.
 
The Caldeira resulted from successive reduction stages of a 410 thousand year old volcano, whose last eruption occurred just 1,000 years ago.
 
In the bottom of the Caldeira, there is a cone that emerged from the last eruptive phase; it resembles the shape of Faial Island.