Wilderness

Foreste Casentinesi Park, Italy joins the European Wilderness System

Where the trees touch the sky
The Apennines’ mountains between Tuscany and Romagna, Firen- ze and the Adriatic coast, are an amazing spot of biodiversity protected since 1993 by the Foreste Casentinesi National Park. The area is remarkable because of the huge amount of rare fauna and flora species such as centuries-old silver firs and beech forests, which contain also hermitages and sanctuaries, an incredible net of water sources, streams and falls, and the signs of an historical abandoned rural culture and society, counting just few human inhabitants today.

The Park has the highest national forest coverage (more than 80%), and its ancient beech forests have just applied for the UNESCO “tentative list” to become a World Heritage Site. The forest ecosystems could be considered pretty much complete, with a very well defined internal balance from the most important predators (wolves, eagles) to their most common preys (ungulates, rodents). Just recently, the black wood- pecker, wildcat and pine-marten have been detected. The area is an excellent example of the Mediterranean Wilderness.

2 thoughts on “Foreste Casentinesi Park, Italy joins the European Wilderness System

  • ‘Appy Easter Ciara and family 🙂 I maevrl at the splendid pics you take! & I laughed at you being Paddy temporarily 🙂 Enjoy the sun and the new green things..lots of love x

  • This is indeed a very wonderful protected area. I spent several days there hiking about 10 years ago. Glad to see it registered as Wilderness Area. One might also mention the chestnut stands that it contains. Hoping that wolves reduce population of wild boar that is doing considerable damage tom forest floor

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