First nature park in Italian-speaking Switzerland to be created

Val Calanca will be home to the first regional nature park in Italian-speaking Switzerland. The Parco Val Calanca, to be finished by 2023, will cover just over 100 square kilometres of untouched nature in a relatively secluded valley in canton Graubünden. 

The park, near the border with canton Ticino, extends across the municipalities of Buseno, Calanca, Rossa and, higher up in Val Calenca, parts of Mesocco. 

The nature park will offer the municipalities and their inhabitants the chance to preserve the extensive pristine nature, the valuable landscape and the rich cultural heritage, the cantonal government said on Thursday. At the same time, sustainable economic development could be initiated, it added. 

The government approved the adaptation of the regional plan for Parco Val Calanca, which in February was approved by 92% of voters in Rossa, Calanca and Buseno. 

The nature park in Val Calanca is the remains of a previously larger park vision: a second national park that would have extended from the Graubünden Oberland via Val Mesolcina to canton Ticino. However, that project was rejected in a referendum. 

Switzerland has 18 parks but only one national park, also in canton Graubünden. 

+ More information on Switzerland’s parks