250px, View towards the Molentargius salt mills. Molentargius - Saline Regional Park (Italian: ''Parco naturale regionale Molentargius - Saline'') is a

regional park A regional park is an area of land preserved on account of its natural beauty, historic interest, recreational use or other reason, and under the administration of a form of local government. Definition A regional park can be a special park distri ...

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label=Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. It was established in 1999 with the aim to protect and enhance a site of international interest, already included in the

Ramsar Convention The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of Ramsar sites (wetlands). It is also known as the Convention on Wetlands. It i ...

since 1977 because of its number relevance about stopover, wintering and nesting waterfowl bird species. ''Molentargius'' in Sardinian language means "donkeys handlers", as the salt extraction was the richest industry of the

Cagliari Cagliari (, also , , ; sc, Casteddu ; lat, Caralis) is an Italian municipality and the capital of the island of Sardinia, an autonomous region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name ''Casteddu'' means ''castle''. It has about 155,000 inhabitant ...

area for millennia, the salt being transported by donkeys. The park is a wetland extending over an area of about 1600 hectares surrounded by the urbanized areas of Cagliari and the other towns of the metropolitan area, and the waterfront of Poetto beach. The uniqueness of this area is the presence of reservoirs of both freshwater and saltwater, separated by a plain characterized by prevailing aridity called Is Arenas ("The sands"). Areas with fresh water are the ponds of Bellarosa Minore and Perdalonga, born as expansion of rainwater tanks. Areas of salt water ponds include the production system of the former Statal Saline of Cagliari, consisting of the Bellarosa Maggiore or ''Is Molentargius'' (water storage tank evaporation), by the Pond of Quartu (second and third tanks evaporation), the other salting basins (saline of Cagliari). From 1850 to the present, 230 bird species, belonging to 53 families have been recorded in the Molentargius area.

References

External links

Official website
{{coord missing, Italy Parks in Sardinia Regional parks of Italy Ramsar sites in Italy Protected areas established in 1999 1999 establishments in Italy