Parks and Nature.
Rolling hills, chromatic extravaganzas in fields,
rustic farmhouses. And cypress trees.
Thus the Tuscan landscape has conquered the world.
And yet, the nature of Tuscany is more than this.
The surprise of snow-covered peaks, ponds and lagoons,
Mediterranean underbrush that grows right out to the
sea, woods and a countryside still marked by the millenarian
practice of promiscuous cultivation.
Resolutely protected parks and reserves that are not
oases in the desert but links in a network that covers
all the environmental systems of the region: Apennines,
hilly inland, wetlands, coast.
The system of protected natural areas of Tuscany includes,
national parks, state and sea reserves, wetlands of
international importance, regional parks, provincial
parks, provincial reserves, protected natural areas
of local interest.
In actuation of the Community "Habitat"
directive (92/43/EEC), 120 sites have been identified
and classified as having community importance (pSic)
and 30 as areas of special protection (Zps), 15 of
which correspond to pSics. These are joined by 15
sites of regional interest (Sir) and 7 sites of national
interest (Sin).
The totality of these areas is an integrating part
of the national ecological network and, in the Community
perspective, of the Nature 2000 European Network.
