Parco del Delta del Po

A Park Shaped by Water...

Emilia-Romagna Po Delta Park characterized by unique territorial and ecological features. It covers over 52,000 hectares of an area which is considered among the most productive and rich in biodiversity: the Park has thus a respectable identity card.
Even if it is one of the most inhabited and economically developed Protected Areas in Italy, Emilia-Romagna Po Delta Park still preserves the largest expanse of protected wetlands. This is why it has supported and founded the International Association of Delta Parks: "Delta chiama Delta".
Given its historical role of cultural and economic crossroads between West and East, the Po Delta preserves many important traces of its magnificent past. Within the Park, therefore, valuable natural elements coexist with great artistic and cultural beauties – which have been recognized also by Unesco.
The Po Delta Park is a very complex Protected Area, since it is at the same time a terrestrial Park, a fluvial Park, and a coastal Park. Its most typical natural element is undoubtedly water, but other easy lines of communication can be used to reach the Park.
The unstable relationship between water and land, their uncertain balance, gave birth in the Po Delta to a varied and changeable landscape in which woods, pinewoods, and flooded forests alternate with inner fresh or salt water wetlands. The biodiversity characterizing the delta territory is extraordinary, above all for the presence of more than 280 bird species.
The most characteristic aspects of the Delta are dealt with in detail in the Park Visitor Centers and museums.

Flora

The flora of the Po Delta Regional Park is characterized by many species, due to a great diversity of environments: from the meadows of glasswort, to the lush forests of oak, ash and alder, the ammophiline that colonize the sands of the coastal dunes, and the reeds that still characterize large areas of the landscape. Among the most common vegetation there are the halophytes, plants that grow on widespread surfaces, perennially or seasonally flooded with salt water.

(These links lead to Italian web pages)

• Woods
• Species in embankments, wetlands and waters
• Shrubby species in marshy environments
• Species in beaches and dunes
• Spontaneous species

Further information

Fauna

The territory of the Emilia-Romagna Delta Po Park is considered as one of the last surviving and best preserved complexes of European wetlands, which contains many habitats, from rivers and stagnant freshwater to lagoons and salty water valleys, from residual dune areas to plain forests and coastal pine forests.

(These links lead to Italian web pages)

• Invertebrates
• Fish
• Amphibians
• Reptiles
• Birds
• Mammals

Further information