Birth and development of Parks and other Protected areas

The first concrete step towards the creation of the protected areas of Emilia-Romagna was taken in the late Seventies, with regional law n. 2/1977 (available only in Italian), that provided specific norms for the protection of the most valuable and rare species of the regional wild flora, and also considered for the first time the possibility to establish parks and reserves for the protection of the most preserved natural assets and the restoration of the most interesting ones from the naturalistic point of view.

Three years later, within the programme for interventions implementing the law, there was a first list of 15 protected areas considered of priority interest; and so, within a few years, the Region came to the establishment of the first park and first two reserves. In March 1982 the Boschi di Carrega Regional Park was born near Parma; some weeks later the Salse di Nirano Natural Reserve was born near Modena and two years later Bosco della Frattona in the hills near Imola.

After this first result, and a few years pause to prepare more specific legislative instruments, the Region rapidly brought to life its system of parks and natural reserves though the framework law 11/1988 (available only in Italian), that mostly anticipated the subsequent national law on parks of 1991, and that brought to the establishment of eight new parks (Stirone, Taro, Alto Appennino Reggiano, Sassi di Roccamalatina, Corno alle Scale, Gessi Bolognesi e Calanchi dell’Abbadessa, Alto Appennino Modenese, Crinale Romagnolo); in the same year another wide park was born in the regional portion of the Po River Delta. The following year, though a specific act justified by the peculiarity of the locations and by the tragic events connected to them, the Historic Regional Park of Monte Sole was established.

In 1989 the Regional Plan of Territory and Landscape defined the framework of the regional protected areas, in whom the list of existing parks and reserves was integrated by a programme for the creation of several new protected areas, implemented partially the next year. In 1990 two new natural Reserves (Alfonsine and Parma Morta) added up to the ones born in the Eighties and a further 4 reserves were established in 1991 and 1992 (Onferno, Bosco di Scardavilla, Fontanili di Corte Valle Re, Monte Prinzera). In 1995 three new parks were born (Valli del Cedra e del Parma, Abbazia di Monteveglio, Laghi di Suviana e Brasimone) and two new reserves ( Piacenziano, Sassoguidano). Between 1996 and 2001 several new reserves were established: Dune Fossili di Massenzatica, Casse di espansione del Fiume Secchia (1996) e Rupe di Campotrera (1999). Finally, though more recent acts, the Region established the “Vena del Gesso Romagnola” Park in 2005 and the Natural Reserve of “Contrafforte Pliocenico" in 2006. The current structure of the system sees the presence of 2 national parks, 14 regional parks and 14 natural reserves.  The two national parks , Foreste Casentinesi, Monte Falterona e Campigna established in 1993 and Appennino Tosco-emiliano in 2001, were born from two former regional parks, i.e. the Crinale Romagnolo and the Alto Appennino Reggiano, both repealed.

In 2005 there was a new regional law n.6/2005 (available only in Italian) that repealed law n. 11/1988; though this law the Region aims at updating its policies for the protection and valorization of the natural heritage, moving from logics of punctual and sectorial protection to systematic logics, pursuing an integrated planning and the institutional cooperation, with the goal to intertwine harmonically the sectoral policies that benefit those areas of the territory particularly rich in nature, like parks and reserves, with the general policies supporting the environmental and social sustainability of the regional development.

In July 2009 the Regional Council approves the Programme for the regional system of protected areas and Natura 2000 network sites, as per art. 12 of regional law 6/2005, including the provisions to establish new parks and natural reserves and other forms of protection such as the natural and seminatural protected landscapes and the ecological rebalancing areas.

By implementing the regional Programme, in autumn 2009 the Region establishes the Trebbia River Regional Park and enlarges the Valli del Cedra e del Parma Regional Park and during 2010 the natural reserves of Ghirardi and Torrile e Trecasali.

always pursuant to the Programme provisions, with regional law n. 24/2011 (available only in Italian) the Piacenziano reserve and the Stirone river park become one single protected area: the regional park of Stirone and Piacenziano. The same law rearranges the regional model to manage the Protected areas and Natura 2000 sites: the former Consortia managing the single Regional Parks are abolished and the Region establishes the 5 Management Bodies for Parks and Biodiversity for the 5 Macroareas.