Parco Nazionale Arcipelago Toscano

Tuscan Archipelago

It includes the terrestrial areas of the seven islands of Arcipelago Toscano:  Elba, Capraia, Gorgona, Pianosa, Montecristo, Giglio, Giannutri, and the marine area surrounding the smaller islands. These islands have a very different geological formation: Capraia is a volcanic island, while Giglio and Elba are mainly granitic islands. A great geological variety which influences shape and landscape of each island. The very ancient presence of man, witnessed by the finds and the long mineral processing tradition, has deeply shaped the original vegetation and the ilex woods only survive in some parts of Elba, which is dominated by Mediterranean maquis.
Arcipelago Toscano has always represented an important shelter and connection area between the Sardinian-Corsican system and the peninsula. This history has led to the presence in the Archipelago of extremely specialized animal and vegetal species which formed during the periods of isolation and species which only live in Corsica and Sardinia. There are colonies of sea birds, like shearwaters and seagulls, among which the rare Audouin's Gull, a Mediterranean endemic species which in Italy lives in a few places. The presence of the Mediterranean monk seal has also been sporadically recorded, and it also possible to sight cetaceans.

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Fauna

The islands are characterized by the presence of a number of endemic species. The most interesting ones are the citril finch, the common self heal, the Sardinian tree frog, the Tyrrhenian painted frog, and the leaf-fingered gecko. The terrestrial mammals are those typical of the Mediterranean environment, with the important presence of the marten; also the rabbit is rather widespread. On the contrary, the wild boar of the Maremma extinguished at the beginning of the 19th century. The species typical of Central Europe has been introduced thirty years ago, but it reproduced in an uncontrolled manner in the Elba, becoming a serious problem for the safeguard of the floristic endemic species and of the agricultural products. The Archipelago is a stop and nesting point for a number of migratory birds. There are also colonies of shearwaters and seagulls, among which the rare Audouin's gull which has been chosen as the Park's symbol.

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• Amphibians
• Reptiles
• Butterflies
• Moths
• Snails and Slugs
• Beetles
• Birds of prey

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Flora

The main aspects influencing the vegetation of Arcipelago Toscano are the Mediterranean climate and the insularity. The dominating vegetation consists of evergreen plants with coriaceous leaves protected by a robust and hardly impermeable epidermis, or by plants with extremely reduced leaves which sometimes become thorns, or those without leaves, like the brooms.
Of the large holm oak forests, nowadays only some copses remain; the orographic and altitude complexity of the Isola d'Elba has favoured the presence of chestnut tree woods; on the mountains there are the European yew and the hop hornbeam.
The most frequent vegetation in the Park is today the Mediterranean maquis. Among its species we remember: the strawberry tree, the buckthorn, the mastic tree, Phoenician juniper, the myrtle, the heath, the rosemary, the lavender, the wonderful brooms, and the colored cyst.
Linaria Capraria and the sea lily are worth a mention.

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• Coastal plants
• Orchids
• Mediterranean scrub
• Medicinal plants
• Elban mountains

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Marine Environment

• Whales and dolphins
• Seabirds
• Monk seal
• Coralligenous
• Neptune grass

The Park's mines

The Elba Island's and its inhabitants' history is linked to the iron mines which worked until the last century.
The mineral extraction on the island seems to have started some thousand years before Christ thanks to the people called "Ilvates" coming from the present Liguria, which the name "Ilva" - ancient name of Elba - comes from. The Etruscans and then also the Romans boosted the iron materials extraction and processing activities, especially for the hematite.

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The sunsets

Summer sunsets are a natural show able to attract everyone visiting the Tuscan Archipelago. Tasting the colors, admiring the shades, getting lost between the golden and silver chips of light reflected by the sea surface, admiring the shimmering colors of the sun reflected by an old building or by a trunk while soft pastel shades paint the sky is an unforgettable experience.

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The prison islands

The Tuscan Archipelago islands have been always considered - thanks to their size and features - ideal places for experimentation with different purposes and realization modalities depending on the epoch and on the political and social emergencies people had to face. In 1858 Pianosa opened the doors to the agricultural penal colonies that, from being a privileged imprisonment place for not very dangerous prisoners, became a punishment place with the establishment of the top-security prison. In the late 1990s the penal institutes were closed with the open possibility of "second thoughts".

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Rocks

The island of the Tuscan Archipelago are made up of different types of rocks: magmatic, both intrusive (granites, granite porphyries and aplitic veins), effusive (basalts and rhyolites), sedimentary (limestones, sandstones, etc.), metamorphic (phyllites, gneiss, marbles, etc.), as well as the famous iron one clusters of the eastern part of the Elba Island. These rocks show particular aspects connecting them to their varied and distant areas of origin, giving us tangible evidence of the movements and overlapping that allowed the Tuscan Archipelago to arise.

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Endemisms

Endemisms are animal or plant species detected in a defined territory. The size of this territory does not lie within a preset maximum and minimum range, and  the area included may range from that of an entire nation to a more restricted region, up to a very limited territory, even a few hundred square meters - i.e., the so-called "point" endemisms.

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• Animal endemisms
• Plant endemisms

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Alien species

Alien species are animal or plant species moved voluntarily or accidentally by humans outside their area of origin. Some of them successfully settle and spread rapidly, causing serious damage to the species and ecosystems native to that place, often accompanied by economic fallout and health problems.

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• Alien plant species
• Alien animal species

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