CAGLIARI (ITALPRESS) – The Sardinian Region, has sent to the Minister of the Environment and Energy Security a note on the progressive degradation of the Posidonia oceanic grasslands in the Archipelago of La Maddalena, asking for an intervention on five fronts of state competence. More than 6,000 boats per day were poured into the summer peaks on priority habitat 1120*. The Region asks for the qualification of judicial police for the supervisory staff of the park agencies, penalties proportioned to the ecological damage and the strengthening of the garrison at sea of the Coast Guard.
The note, signed by the Environment Defense Department Rosanna Laconi and the President of the Alessandra Todde Region, was also transmitted to the President of the National Park.
The area concerned comprises three separate protection schemes: national park under Law No. 394 of 1991; site of the Natura 2000 ITB010008 «Arcipelago La Maddalena», designated Special conservation area by ministerial decree of 11 January 2022 and at the same time classified Special Protection Area; portion of the Pelagos Sanctuary for the marine mammals of the Mediterranean, ratified by Law No. 391 of 2001. Each regime generates autonomous obligations and each one, notes the Region, is today disregarded for the same reason: the absence of an effective vigilance.
In the weeks of summer peak the pressure is concentrated in the areas of greater fragility — Caprera, Spargi, Budelli, Santa Maria and the islands to the north and south of Mortorio — and acts along three directions: the anchorage on foundations colonized by the posidonia, with mechanical eradication and fragmentation of the prairies; the ondous motion and excessive speed, which accentuate the erosion of the sandstones; The same factors affect the residual populations of Pinna nobilis, already in a critical state of conservation, and the marine mammals that permanently frequent these waters.
The conservation measures are disregarded daily and on a large scale without consequences for the offender.
The staff of the Park Body does not have the qualification of judicial police or sanctioned powers: it can inform and report, do not dispute. The supervision remains entrusted to the Harbour office and to the Forestry Body and environmental supervision, with equipment not commensurate with the extension of the area.
Ordinary penalties applied to anchoring on prairie are attested on amounts of a few dozen euros, perceived by the high-end boating as an accessory cost of navigation. In France, part of the same Pelagos Agreement, violations are prosecuted before the maritime court, with much higher pecuniary sanctions which may add the temporary prohibition of navigation.
The Region also reports that it has already started, for the part of its own competence, a path of cooperation with the Maritime Administration: with the deliberation of the Regional Junta n. 36/21 of 15 July 2026 the scheme of Protocol of understanding with the General Command of the Harbour offices – Coast Guard, which expressly includes the supervision of the protected marine areas and the Natura 2000 sites. The Protocol offers an actuative headquarters already established, in which the Ministry is asked to support the insertion of a specific line of activity dedicated to the presidio of the Archipelago of La Maddalena.
“We are not asking for new prohibitions: the existing ones are already more than enough, we are asking that someone can enforce them,” write in the note President Todde and Councillor Laconi. “A European priority habitat cannot be entrusted to the good will of those who cross it, and those who damage it cannot survive with a penalty of a few dozen euros. Sardinia is part of it, but the supervisory powers and the sanctions are state matter: on this we ask the Minister for an answer”.
Article 20 of the Regulation of the European Union.
The Region declares itself available for every technical study and participation in a dedicated work table, in agreement with the Park Authority as manager of the Natura 2000 site and with the competent maritime authorities.
-Photos Sardinia Region
(ITALPRESS).
