The province of Lecce can boast, with pride, a system of protected areas

The province of Lecce can boast, with pride, a system of protected areas (regional, national and marine natural reserves and sanctuaries) that are the basis by which started a long route of protection and development of our environmental treasures. The first regional park of Salento and one of the first in the region is the Rauccio's wood, in the district of Lecce. In the path of Rauccio other regional protected areas have been instituted and, step by step, adjoined to the two already existing protected areas: Cesine and Marine Park of Porto Cesareo, largely comprehending the coast of Salento. These areas differ for their environmental characteristics, both in flora and fauna. From the Rauccio's wood, a small ilex wood remnant of the medieval "Wood of Lecce", to the brackish pond backing the dunes of Cesine; from the steep sea cliffs to the substeppe grassland of the coast from Otranto to Leuca to the majestic Vallonean oaks in the Tricase territory; from the coast of Ugento with its impressive juniper dunes and wide thicket and bush as in the territory of Rottacapozza to the low garigue of Spina police (Anthyllis hermanniae) shaped by the prevailing winds of Punta Pizzo or to the rare beauty of the Island of St. Andrea; from the huge pinewood of Porto Selvaggio to the wonderful Uluzzo's bay; from the Marine Park of Porto Cesareo with its caraibic sea floor to the white dunes of Punta Prosciutto and the reed bed and reed thicket of the Palude del Conte and to the thicket of Arneo. As you can see a wide range of typical landscapes and environments, often unique and unrepeatable, that represent not only a naturalistic patrimony of inestimable scientific and cultural value but also an ideal place where to retake contact with nature which is everyday more absent in our life. Unfortunately attacks to nature and to biodiversity recur with increasing frequency. A long way must be covered to reach a correct protection and management of the natural habitats and to avert forever their deterioration and banalization. Therefore, is important to support as much as possible a reapproaching to nature that should represent an assumption for a real protection and development not only of these areas but of the whole territory through a course shared by the local communities. This all has to be done through a right popularization that should be capable to be winning like a tale and at the same time, correct and exact from the scientific point of view.


Luciano Scarpina and Piero Medagli