Capo Caccia-Isola Piana
Marine Protected Area
The areas of the MPA
The Capo Caccia – Isola Piana Marine Protected Area (MPA) extends over 2,631 hectares of sea and approximately 36 kilometers of coastline. The area has been divided into 3 types of zones with different degrees of protection, in order to guarantee the maximum balance between usability and protection, regulating human activities in order to make the impact of human activities on the environment sustainable. Economy and environmental protection find the right dimension in this space. Click on the map to find out what rules are in force in the marine protected area.
The Marine Protected Area of Capo Caccia and Isola Piana
The Capo Caccia and Isola Piana Marine Protected Area has been recognized as a specially protected area of Mediterranean interest. Originally the protection project included the area of Capo Caccia and Isola Piana, subsequently the areas of the bay of Porto Conte and the promontory of Punta Giglio up to Capo Galera were added
Flora and Fauna of the Marine Protected Area
The over two thousand and five hundred hectares of sea, rocky cliffs and low, sandy coasts that make up the Capo Caccia – Isola Piana Marine Protected Area contain a true treasure chest of biodiversity, due to the high number of habitats and species of high conservation interest that are found there.
Caves and Caverns of the Marine Protected Area
The cliffs of the Marine Protected Area are characterized, largely, by rocks originating from the Cretaceous period. These enormous limestone massifs that fall into the sea with imposing walls are home to numerous submerged caves.
Among the most famous caves is the Neptune cave, reachable both from land, thanks to 648 steps of the Escala del Cabiròl, and from the sea, via shuttle services active from the city port. The interior, which can be visited for about 500 metres, houses a lake with crystal clear waters and enormous stalactite formations.
The Nereo Cave is also very well known, considered to be one of the most spectacular submerged caves in the Mediterranean: when diving you generally enter from an entrance at 35 meters of depth and exit from various openings located between 15 and 10 meters after a journey between galleries and chambers that follow one another for a total length of approximately 500 metres.
The Rio Convention in the Marine Protected Area
The Directorate for the Protection of Nature and the Sea of the Ministry of the Environment and Protection of Land and Sea is committed to the implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity signed in Rio de Janeiro on 5 June 1992, subsequently ratified by Italy with law 14 February 1994, n. 124. Article 8 of the Rio de Janeiro Convention highlights the importance of promoting the protection of ecosystems, natural habitats and the maintenance of viable populations of species in natural environments, while Article 13 calls for the need to promote and encourage the perception of how important the conservation of biological diversity is and the measures necessary to this end through dissemination.