Do you need a permit to pick mushrooms in Spain

You can't buy a mushroom permit “for Spain” – no such document exists. The picking regime is set by the autonomous community, and within the community by the forest owner and the rules of the particular regulated zone. Below is what the official texts of four regions say: where picking “for yourself” is enough, where everything is decided by the sign at the edge of the wood, and what to check before you set out.

The permit is tied to the land, not the country

Mushrooms in Spain are a forest use tied to a specific plot of land. The preamble of the Castilla y León decree sets out the logic directly: Ley 43/2003 de Montes recognises mushrooms as a forest resource (aprovechamiento forestal), the right to which belongs to the owner of the land where they grow, and Article 36.3 instructs the forestry authority of the autonomous community to regulate non-timber uses. ¹

Hence the two-level picture. The community describes the general regime, and then the plot owner and zones with their own regulations come into play: in Castilla y León these are acotados and parques micológicos, in the Comunidad Foral de Navarra – acotados.

Castilla y León: no permit needed outside an acotado

But only if the picking is “occasional”. Decree 31/2017 defines occasional use as use that is neither regulated nor reserved and takes place on land not designated for those two regimes. The conditions are strict: no profit motive and not on a regular basis, only for recreation or your own consumption, what you pick must not be sold, picking must be environmentally harmless, truffles are excluded, and the limit is 3 kilograms of wild mushrooms per person per day. In that case no permit is required. ²

Inside an acotado the logic is reversed: picking there is always considered regulated use – except for occasional picking of species that the regulation does not cover. You will see the boundary on the ground: a sign with a white background and black lettering reading “Acotado de setas. Prohibido recolectar sin permiso de recolección”. ²

If a zone operates within the Micocyl system, everyone who picks needs a permit, and each park or acotado has its own specific picking conditions – you are advised to read them before buying a permit. So the document is tied to the zone, not to the region. More on the area: Castilla y León. ³

Aragón: the 3 kilograms apply until there is a sign

The scheme is similar to the one in Castilla y León, which is convenient: you only need to keep one logic in mind. The Government of Aragón describes occasional use in the same way – no profit motive, for your own consumption, environmentally harmless, no more than 3 kilograms of mushrooms per person per day. It can take place in all montes, but it is cancelled in two cases: if the plot owner has declared so (through señalización, that is, a sign) or if the land is included in a regulated zone. ⁴

Regulated use is picking for recreational, commercial, educational, awareness-raising or scientific purposes, and it requires a permit from whoever holds the regulated zone. In other words, the permission is issued not by the region but by the zone. The basis is Decreto 179/2014 de 4 de noviembre (BOA No. 225 of 17 November 2014). The area: Aragón. ⁴

Comunidad Foral de Navarra: no general regime, just a network of acotados

So the question “how many kilograms are allowed” does not work here. The Government of the Comunidad Foral de Navarra suggests first finding out about the acotados, requesting the necessary permits and following the picking rules; the website publishes a map where each coloured area opens information on the permits, species and picking rules of that particular zone. ⁶

According to the press release of 1 April 2021, the Red de Acotados de Setas de Navarra included 16 areas, and each acotado has its own regulations; for the current list, see the same map on the website of the Government of the Comunidad Foral de Navarra. These texts give no general limit in kilograms for the whole region – look for it in the rules of the specific zone. The area: Comunidad Foral de Navarra. ⁷

Cataluña: picking is not regulated, except in certain areas

The shortest answer of the four. To the common question “is mushroom picking regulated in Cataluña”, the Cos d'Agents Rurals answers: no, except in some protected natural areas. The examples given are the Paratge Natural d'Interès Nacional de Poblet, where a permit is required, and the Parc Nacional d'Aigüestortes i Estany de Sant Maurici, where picking is completely prohibited. In addition, municipalities and landowners may set restrictions on their own land. The area: Cataluña. ⁸

A region's kilograms do not override the zone's rules

The most common mistake is to turn up with the figure of “3 kg” and assume it applies everywhere. It doesn't: in Castilla y León, picking in an acotado is always regulated, and in Aragón the occasional regime is cancelled inside a regulated zone. So inside a zone, its permit and its conditions apply, not the community's general limit. ²⁴

The second source of confusion is Real Decreto 30/2009. These are the sanitary conditions for selling mushrooms for food use, which Aragón refers to in relation to commercialisation. It gives no right to pick and does not replace the zone's permit. ⁵

What the MicoRadar map does and doesn't do

The map has a layer of regulated zones – the cotos of Castilla y León and the acotados of the Comunidad Foral de Navarra, compiled from the registers. It helps you work out at home whether your route falls within such a zone, and to jump quickly to the right area: Castilla y León on the map, Aragón, Comunidad Foral de Navarra, Cataluña.

But the registers are updated, and the layer may lag behind, so the sign on the ground and the zone's official page decide. The same goes for the forecast: the MicoRadar calculation is a model of conditions, it neither permits anything nor overrides a zone's rules. The weekend forecast is useful for planning, not for answering the question about permits.

What this guide doesn't cover

Galicia, País Vasco, Comunidad Valenciana and the other communities are not included – there is no data on them here, and the rules need to be checked on the spot, with the community's authority and with the plot owner. Details for Cataluña beyond the Agents Rurals answer quoted here should also be checked on the spot.

And about the mushrooms in your basket: neither the species, nor a photo, nor an app tells you that a mushroom is edible – identification is not covered here, and there is a general overview of what to avoid in the section on poisonous mushrooms. If you feel unwell after eating wild mushrooms, call 112.

What to check before you set out

• Check on the map whether your route falls within a coto or acotado, and open that zone's page.
• For the Comunidad Foral de Navarra, open the acotados map on the government website and read the rules of the zone you have chosen.
• If you are heading to Cataluña, check the status of the area: in protected areas a permit or a ban may apply.
• If you plan to sell what you pick, check the sanitary requirements separately – they do not relate to picking.
• On the spot, read the sign: its text outweighs any article, this one included.

Regulatory texts and figures checked against the sources on 29.09.2026: Decreto 31/2017 (BOCYL, 9.10.2017), Decreto 179/2014 (BOA No. 225, 17.11.2014), pages of the governments of Aragón and the Comunidad Foral de Navarra, the answer from the Cos d'Agents Rurals.