| Antonio Garcea Visit Center |
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A.Garcea, close to Mancuso Village, in the municipality of Taverna, appears as an area mainly covered with larch pine in pure formation. It is just from the great richness of this wood that its anthropic presence and the exploitation of its timber get their origins. Thus, it was around the first twenty years of the XX century that the rustic complex of the State Forestry Department was set up. From here, it leads a careful politics of topsoil exploitation, reforestation, prudent sawing, environmental protection and preservation against fires. After the ‘80s, thanks to an uninterrupted employment of creative resources, the Visitor Centre Antonio Garcea put on the structure of a modern and multifunctional complex plunged in the nature, aiming at talking about nature by arousing the typical memories of the agro-sylvi-pastoral culture which it is linked to, by spreading silently its echoes.
The co-operation between the Sila National Park Agency and the State Forestry Department – through its structures and departments – is the guarantor of a good fruition of the Visitor Centres, aiming at a careful preservation of the natural environment, which is a biodiversity oasis, with a popular, didactical and scientific aim for present and future generations. The Visitor Centre is located in the municipality of Taverna, 40 Km. far from Catanzaro, inside the Biogenetic Natural Reserve “Poverella – Villaggio Mancuso”. The Centre, which sets itself as a Centre par excellence highly specialized in environmental education thanks to suitable infrastructures, is in the service of promotional and cultural activities in the naturalistic field, which are carried out by the Management Agency of Sila National Park. The Information Office assures the welcome to visitors all year-round. 
Among the different structures, the most important ones are: the “Nature Centre”, with its meeting and exhibition room, and the thematic museum; the “Study Centre – Naturalistic, Environmental and Forest Education”, with a didactical room, a library, a didactical lab and the open-air “green room”; two thematic museums: “The Forests of Sila” and “Forests and Men”. The museum “The Forests of Sila” has as central subject the evolution and structure of the forest formations of Sila, by stressing some relationships which rule the development of these sensitive ecosystems. In fact, not only the dynamic nature of every vegetal landscape has to be taken into account, which is influenced by climate, geological and genetic factors, but it is necessary to bear in mind the complicated relationships involving vegetal beings and other living species – from bacteria to vertebrates - in order to understand their value and vulnerability. The museum “Forests and Men” focuses on the relationship between the human communities and mountains and woods: in fact, in our Country it is common to find cultural landscapes whose natural features have been modified by the thousand-year action of man.
The “Green Theatre” with 500 seats. The Unicef Square aiming at hosting cultural, recreational, didactical and environmental demonstrations.  Some areas are reserved to the acclimatization and diffusion centres for deers and roes, to the demonstrative-didactical centre for roes, to the didactical and acclimatization centre for wonderful specimen of eagle owls which is going to be reintroduced in Sila Piccola. To sum up, the Visitor Centre aims at guarantee a wide range of accessibility to the protected area by giving all people the possibility to enjoy their spare time and the right “to do tourism”, which is an important aspect for man to socialize and have fun. (Source SFD)
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