Zembra and Zembretta

Zembra and Zembretta National Park was established in 1977 in the Gulf of Tunis, off the Cap Bon peninsula, and protects some 40 km² comprising the two islands and their surrounding waters.

Zembra is a mountainous, rugged island, with cliffs falling sheer to the sea and a summit of a little over four hundred metres; Zembretta is a much smaller islet to the south-east. Both are uninhabited apart from a small military garrison, and access is strictly restricted, which has preserved their qualities.

Their importance is ornithological: the cliffs of Zembra hold the largest breeding colony of Scopoli's shearwater in the Mediterranean, with tens of thousands of pairs, as well as Eleonora's falcon, Audouin's gull and European storm petrel. The waters preserve well-conserved Posidonia meadows and coralligenous beds, and were one of the last Mediterranean refuges of the monk seal. The island also has dense Mediterranean scrub with endemic species. Zembra and Zembretta were declared a biosphere reserve by UNESCO in 1977, in the first round of Tunisian designations.