Sila

Sila National Park was created in 2002 in Calabria, although the territory already had protection as part of the former Calabria National Park. It occupies an extensive granite plateau lying between 1,000 and 1,900 metres, a gentle, undulating relief that contrasts with the harshness of the rest of the Calabrian mountains and that has allowed continuous forestry and grazing.

Its characteristic vegetation is the Calabrian laricio pine forest, a subspecies of its own that forms extensive stands and that includes monumental individuals: the so-called Giganti della Sila, at Fallistro, are pines more than forty metres tall and several centuries old, protected as a reserve. Alongside the pinewoods there are beech forests at higher altitudes and relict fir stands. The plateau is dotted with large artificial lakes built in the twentieth century for hydroelectric power — Cecita, Arvo, Ampollino — which today form part of the landscape and support aquatic wildlife.

The Sila is home to the Apennine wolf, the Italian roe deer, the wildcat, the otter and the black Calabrian squirrel, a local dark-coated variety. The quality of the plateau's air, with very little light and atmospheric pollution, is one of its recognised values. In 2014 UNESCO designated Sila National Park a biosphere reserve within the MAB programme.