The park was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2001 for its size, altitude range, complex lithology, landform diversity, and wealth of endemic flora and fauna.

The region around Alejandro de Humboldt National Park is geologically complex, containing karst landscapes that originated from oceanic crust in the Cretaceous period.

[5] The Alexander von Humboldt National Park has historically been an area of land little used by man, with only one archaeological site from the pre-Columbian period being known; this is located in the coastal zone of Aguas Verdes.

This continued into the 1980s with the proposal of the Ojito del Agua Refuge, associated with the last sighting of the royal woodpecker, a last remnant of this species which was already extinct in its other habitats in the United States and Mexico.

Being one of the most important biosphere reserves in the Caribbean basin, the national park, along with Cuchillas del Toa was declared a UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site in 2001.