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This Oasis is in the Municipality of Castagneto Carducci, in Val di Cecina, in the province of Livorno. Its 1.268 acres are acknowledged as a Site of Community Importance (SIC IT5160004) and a Special Protection Area (SPA IT5160004) according to the European Habitats and Birds Directives; but this has also been a wetland of international importance since 1977, according to the Ramsar International Convention.

The birth of this WWF Oasis is credited to Marquis Mario Incisa della Rocchetta, the very founder of the Italian WWF. Together with Lake Burano, these two places have been protected since 1966.

The area is mainly a humid one along the coastal strip and it is an example of an original environment of upper Maremma territory, consisting of cultivated and uncultivated fields, wet meadows, flooded wood with Fraxinus angustifolia, 370 acres of ponds, a coastal tombolo (or ayre) and a beach. The flora features Fraxinus angustifolia (narrow-leafed ash), Ulmus minor (field elm), Juniperus oxycedrus (cade juniper), Juniperus phoenicea (Phoenician juniper), Tamarix spp. (salt cedar), Prunus spinosa (blackthorn), Crataegus monogyna (common hawthorn), Quercus pubescens (downy oak), Quercus ilex (holm oak), Phragmites australis (common reed), Schoenoplectus lacustris (lakeshore bulrush), Juncus spp. (rushes), Althaea spp. (marshmallow plant), Pancratium maritimum (sea daffodil), Eringium maritimum (sea holly), and Soldanella spp. (snowbell). There are also some dune forests of Pinus pinea and Pinus pinaster.

The local fauna includes a large number of birds in winter and spring such as mallards, wigeons, shovelers, pintails, gadwalls, and the teals. There are also many wild geese, lapwings, cranes, peregrine falcons, doves, snipes, bitterns, cattle egrets, great white herons, long-eared owls, marsh harriers, sea eagles, and several pigeons.

The humid area also gathers many wintering species which usually nest there; there are grebes, black-winged stilts, coots, water rails, owls, lesser spotted woodpeckers, green woodpeckers, Eurasian wryneck, cuckoos, short-toed treecreepers, sparrowhawks, golden orioles, jays, European rollers, great reed warblers, and Eurasian penduline tits. Since 2008, storks have returned to nest here on a regular basis, while they had been missing from the Maremma for 300 years.

The Oasis allows to admire these animal and plant species along a circular tour route: it is partially accessible to differently-abled visitors, winds through the plain wood and it features 6 birdwatching huts.

This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)