Asinara National Park

Asinara National Park
Parco Nazionale dell'Asinara
IUCN category II (national park)
Asinara Island seen from a hill in Sardinia
Location	Italy, (Sardinia)
Nearest city	Porto Torres
Coordinates	41°03′28″N 8°16′33″E
Area	5,190 ha (20.0 sq mi)
Established	October 8, 1997 (1997-October-08)

The Asinara National Park (the complete name is Asinara National Park - Marine Protected Area "Asinara Island") is a national park and a marine protected area in Italy in the northern part of Sardinia. The park encompasses the entire island of Asinara with a total area of 5,190 hectares (20.0 sq mi; 12,824.8 acres), the Marine Protected area has an area of 10,732 hectares (41.4 sq mi; 26,519.3 acres).

Geography

The island of Asinara is located at the northwestern tip of Sardinia. It's a rocky island covered with Mediterranean scrub, there is a small holm oak forest (Quercus ilex) in the northern part. The island is made up of four low mountain ranges connected by isthmuses, the highest point is Punta della Scomunica in the north of the island (408 metres (1,338.6 ft) above sea level).

The west coast is steep and rocky with high cliffs and withouth beaches, the east coast is low, there are several beaches and also some dunes and ponds.

The rainfall is around 500 millimetres (19.7 in) per year, the coldest month is February with an average temperature of 10 °C (50.0 °F), the hottest month is August with an average temperature of 23 °C (73.4 °F). The island is windy, winds are mainly coming from west or northwest. When the wind blows from the east, navigation is difficult and on some days the island is unreachable.

History

The island

The former quarantine station

The oldest evidence of human presence on the island is some collective tombs, known as domus de janas, which date back to the Neolithic period. The island's old name was Herculis insula and is linked to the myth of Herakles, who, during his travels, reached Sardinia and Asinara.

The Romans later named the island Sinuaria because of its sinuous shape. Due to its position in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, the island was a commercial outpost, but it was also the site of conflicts between the maritime republics, all of which wanted to control Sardinia.

In the XII century benedictine monks founded a monastery, they stayed for some decades. The first stable inhabitants were shepherds from Sardinia and fishermen from Liguria. In 1885 the italian government decided to build a quarantine station and a penal colony, the local population was displaced and had to leave the island.

The penal colony was based on forced labor and inmates were spread in different buildings on the island. The quarantine station hosted crews suspected to have contagious diseases like cholera and tuberculosis and remained active until WWII.

During WWI the island became a prison camp with thousands of Austro-Hungarian prisoners, conditions were very hard and many of them died on the island, they are buried in the Campu Perdu Ossuary. Later, during fascism, the prison housed Ethiopian prisoners, among them was also the eldest daughter and one of the sons of Emperor Haile Selassie.

In the 1970s the prison was tranformed into a maximum security prison, members of different branches of italian mafia were locked there. Security measures were so extreme that judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino and their families were hosted there during the preparations of the mafia trials in 1985.

The park

The prison closed in the early 1990s due to pressure from local communities who wanted to convert the island into a protected area to attract tourists. The park was founded in 1997, and the Marine Protected Area was established a few years later.

Ecology

Together with the small Isola Piana located a little further south, Asinara is part of the Natura 2000 network. The two islands are included in the Special Areas of Conservation, "Isola dell'Asinara" and in the Special Protection Area "Isola Asinara".

Flora

There are 30 endemic plants on the island, among those the spiny cornflower (Centaurea horrida) and beach bugloss (Anchusa crispa ssp. crispa) are protected by Natura 2000 program because their distribution is very limited to this island and small parts of Sardinia and Corsica.

Other important endemics are the Asinara limonium (Limonium laetum), the acute-leaved limonium (Limonium acutifolium).

Fauna

The fauna has also undergone profound changes in recent decades. Historical sources report the presence of species important from a naturalistic point of view, such as the mouflon, Sardinian deer, monk seal, and osprey.

There are more than 80 species of Amphibians, Reptiles, Birds and Mammals on the island. Among the endemic species there is a reptile, the Italian three-toed skink (Chalcides chalcides), the Mediterranean hare (Lepus mediterraneus) and the Greater white-toothed shrew (Crocidura russula).

Mammals

Wild Asinara donkey

Among the mammals there are insectivores (hedgehog, reddish crocidura and mustiolus), the Sardinian hare, some species of rodents (quercine mouse, wild mouse, black rat, brown rat, house mouse) and ungulates (wild boar and mouflon).

There is a population of mouflons, they were introduced in 1950s and the lack of predators allowed them to reproduce, the same happened with boars.

On the island there are also wild goats, they can be found also on steep cliffs.

A typical species are donkeys, there are two species, the Sardinian gray donkey and the white Asinara donkey (Equus asinus var. albina).

Asinara donkeys are small, there are around 120 individuals, most of them are albinistic. They have a white coat, unpigmented skin and do not like to stay in the light, they find shelter in the old buildings of the prison.

Other websites

Media related to Asinara at Wikimedia Commons