Data Zone
Country/territory: Italy
IBA criteria met: A1, C1, C6 (2002)
For more information about IBA criteria, please click here
Area: 2,437 hectares (24.37 km2)
Site description (2000 baseline)
Palude Brabbia is a fen peatland located at the foot of the pre-Alps, west of the town of Varese. The area includes open water, marsh vegetation (mainly Phragmites and Carex), humid meadows and wet woodlands, and it is fed by the Brabbia Canal which links it to two lakes. One of them is Lago di Varese, a medium-sized freshwater lake surrounded by a fringe of reedbed. The main land-uses are nature conservation in Palude Brabbia, and tourism and hunting in Lago di Varese.
Key biodiversity
An important site for breeding Aythya nyroca, herons (including a mixed heronry of Nycticorax nycticorax and Ardea cinerea) and reedbed passerines, and for foraging raptors. Numbers are based on regular counts during 1987-1996, apart from breeding herons which started to colonize the area in 1993.
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Brabbia peatland, Lake Varese and Lake Biandronno (Italy). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/brabbia-peatland-lake-varese-and-lake-biandronno-iba-italy on 22/12/2024.