# Sila: 73,695 hectares of park, 307,294 of reserve

> The Sila National Park covers 73,695 hectares; the UNESCO biosphere reserve around it covers 307,294. Two labels, two boundaries, one Calabrian plateau.

URL: https://myitalia.it/nature/parco-della-sila
Last updated: 2026-09-11

The Sila is two protected areas with two boundaries: a national park of 73,695 hectares, set up in 2002, and a UNESCO biosphere reserve of 307,294 hectares, recognized in 2014, with the park at its core.

## The national park: 2002, 73,695 hectares

The Sila National Park was established by presidential decree on November 14, 2002, and covers 73,695 hectares in 21 comuni.

They split across three provinces: 11 in the province of Cosenza, 6 in Catanzaro and 4 in Crotone. So the park answers to three provincial administrations, not one.

It had a predecessor, the Parco Nazionale della Calabria of 1968. The park authority's own site couldn't be read during research, and its published area may differ from the ministry figure used here.

## The biosphere reserve: 2014, 307,294 hectares

The Sila became a biosphere reserve in UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere program in 2014, over 307,294 hectares.

That's more than four times the area of the park, and the national park is its core. The two answer different questions: the park is a legal boundary with its own rules, the reserve a UNESCO designation for the wider territory around it.

The reserve's internal zoning, core, buffer and transition, isn't detailed in the UNESCO sheet that was read for this page, so it isn't mapped here.

## Three UNESCO labels in Calabria, none of them the same

Calabria has one World Heritage site, and it isn't the Sila: it's the ancient beech forests, a serial property shared with six other regions.

The Sila's UNESCO label is the biosphere reserve. The Aspromonte, at the southern tip of the region, holds a third kind: UNESCO Global Geopark since 2021, over 64,541 hectares.

World Heritage, biosphere reserve and geopark are three separate UNESCO programs, and a place can hold one without the others. When a Calabrian brochure says "UNESCO", ask which of the three it means.

## Two boundaries on one plateau

Both boundaries sit on the same plateau, and most of the reserve's 307,294 hectares lie outside the park.

For you that difference is practical. Park rules apply inside the smaller line; whether the reserve adds rules of its own outside it isn't described in the facts here, so ask the park authority.

## What the facts don't cover yet

The Sila's lakes, lift times, visitor centers and bus links are not published in any source verified here, so none of them are quoted.

They're logged as gaps for the next round of research. See [Calabria](/regions/calabria), [the Pollino](/nature/parco-del-pollino) and [national parks in Italy](/themes/national-parks).

## FAQ

### Is the Sila a national park?

Yes. The Sila National Park was established on November 14, 2002 and covers 73,695 hectares in 21 comuni across the provinces of Cosenza, Catanzaro and Crotone. Its predecessor was the Parco Nazionale della Calabria of 1968.

### What is the Sila biosphere reserve?

A UNESCO Man and the Biosphere designation from 2014, covering 307,294 hectares of the Calabrian plateau and the land around it, with the national park as its core. It's a different label, and a far larger area, than the park.

### Is the Sila a UNESCO World Heritage site?

No. Calabria's one World Heritage site is the ancient beech forests, shared with six other regions. The Sila's UNESCO status is the biosphere reserve, and the Aspromonte's is a Global Geopark, recognized in 2021.

## Sources

| Fact | Source | Confidence | Valid until |
|---|---|---|---|
| Il Parco Nazionale della Sila e stato istituito con il DPR del 14 novembre 2002, si estende su 73.695 ettari e comprende 21 comuni in tre province: 11 nel Cosentino, 6 nel Catanzarese e 4 nel Crotonese. | [MASE - Ministero dell'Ambiente e della Sicurezza Energetica](https://www.mase.gov.it/portale/parco-nazionale-della-sila) | medium | 2029-12-31 |
| La Sila e Riserva della Biosfera del programma MAB UNESCO dal 2014, con una superficie riconosciuta di 307.294 ettari, molto piu ampia del parco nazionale che ne costituisce il nucleo. | [UNESCO](https://www.unesco.org/en/mab/sila) | medium | 2030-12-31 |
| L'Aspromonte e UNESCO Global Geopark dal 2021: 64.541 ettari all'estremita meridionale della Calabria, con 256.087 abitanti, rocce metamorfiche paleozoiche formate fra 540 e 250 milioni di anni fa, e circa mille parlanti dell'antica lingua grecanica. | [UNESCO - International Geoscience and Geoparks Programme](https://www.unesco.org/en/iggp/aspromonte-unesco-global-geopark); [Commissione Nazionale Italiana per l'UNESCO](https://www.unesco.it/it/unesco-vicino-a-te/geoparchi/aspromonte/) | high | 2029-12-31 |
| In Calabria ricadono 1 siti UNESCO del Patrimonio Mondiale (2026) | [UNESCO World Heritage Centre](https://whc.unesco.org/en/statesparties/it/); [Ministero della Cultura - Ufficio UNESCO](https://unesco.cultura.gov.it/projects/); [Wikidata (query SPARQL su P1435=Q9259, P17=Q38, P757, P131)](https://query.wikidata.org/sparql) | medium | 2027-08-31 |

## Image

https://media.myitalia.it/media/nature.sila.1600.jpg
Author: Ugo Leonetti. License: CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0).
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Parco_Nazionale_della_Sila,_Campo_San_Lorenzo.jpg

## Other languages

- it: https://myitalia.it/it/natura/parco-della-sila.md
- es: https://myitalia.it/es/naturaleza/parco-della-sila.md
- fr: https://myitalia.it/fr/nature/parco-della-sila.md
- de: https://myitalia.it/de/natur/parco-della-sila.md