The Adamello Park covers an area of about 510 square kilometres on the Lombard side of the Adamello massif and along the valleys that descend from it as far as the Oglio river in Valle Camonica in the Province of Brescia.

The Park stands within the administrative areas of 19 Municipalities. About 6,000 people live within its limits. The running of the Park has been entrusted by the Lombardy Region to the Comunità Montana di Valle Camonica (Valle Camonica Territorial Community), based at Breno, which is where the Park’s administrative and technical offices are also located. 

The environment and landscape.

 The feature that impressively dominates the higher part of the Adamello is the presence of glaciers. Because of current climate change and the consequent retreat of glaciers in mountains throughout the world, leading to their reduction or even disappearance, the Adamello glacier has lost the imposing size it had at the start of the 18th century, but the spectacle it offers today is nevertheless awe-inspiring: the Adamello glacier is up to 250 metres deep.

The conditions of relative isolation and impenetrability of the Park’s northern valleys encourage the presence of fine and interesting fauna: ibex and chamois, red and roe deer, rock ptarmigan, black grouse and golden eagles live on the most inaccessible ledges and in the best-preserved parcels of forest. And bears too increasingly frequent the Park’s valleys, having extended their range from the neighbouring Adamello Brenta Park in the Trento Region, where they have been reintroduced. It is to be expected that wolves and lynxes will soon be reappearing too. 

About 40% of the Park is covered in wood and forest.

The most important forest on the Lombard side of the Adamello massif comprises a wide variety of species and conformations, influenced more by the slopes on which they grow and by the climate than by the composition of the soil or by human activity.

Within the Park, some drying houses and storerooms for chestnuts are still used and can often be visited, and there are also watermills where the chestnuts used to be ground to make flour. 

 The Valle Camonica is also famous for offering the greatest European concentration of prehistoric rock carvings: thousands of rocks carved over a period of over 6,000 years offer an account of the life of the Camunni people who lived in the valley in pre-Roman times.

The Valle Camonica is this too: nature and culture fused together to form a site of extraordinary importance right in the heart of the Alps, a “World heritage site” that remains to be discovered and valued to the full by many citizens of Europe.

Text by: Dario Furlanetto, Director of the Adamello NaturalPark

Name of protected area
Managing enterprise (if different)	Comunità montana di Valle Camonica
Country	Italy
Area (ha)	51.000 ha
Year of creation	1983
UICN category	V
Legal basis	Regional Park
Regions concerned	Lombardy
Number of municipalities	19
Lowest point (m)	m 390
Highest point (m)	m 3539
Population	6.000 inhabitants
Forest surface area	Ha 15.600
Glacier surface area	Ha 15.000
Pasture surface area	Ha 4.380
Prevailing landscape types	Deciduous and coniferous forest Rocks and scree Alpine pasture
Emblematic fauna	Ibex, chamois, bear, golden eagle, eagle owl, Western capercaillie, black grouse, rock ptarmigan, rock partridge.
Emblematic flora	Pinus uncinata, Pinus cembra, Genziana puntata, Primula daonensis, Leontopodium alpinum, Campanula raineri, Vaccinum microcarpum, Lycopodiella inondata, Andromeda polifonia, Drosera angelica, Artemisia genepì, Cypripedium calceolus.
Major tourist attractions	Ponte di Legno - Tonale ski area, Prehistoric rock carvings of Capo di Ponte and at Unesco 94 site, Boario Spa.
Information centre(s) (number, name, themes)	Vezza d’Oglio, Via Nazionale 132 – postcode 25059 - tel 0364/76165 Saviore dell’Adamello, Via Adamello 8 -postcode 25050 - tel 0364/634145 Centro Faunistico and CRAS di Paspardo, località Flesso – 25050 tel. 392/9276538
Internet site	www.parcoadamello.it
Number of employees	9 people
Access BY CAR	from Milan, take the SS 42 road to Passo del Tonale; from Bolzano, take the SS 42 to the Passo del Tonale; from Brescia, take the SP 510 as far as Pisogne, then continue on the SS 42. BY TRAIN: from Brescia with the Trenord Brescia – Edolo service.