Riserva naturale Salina di Cervia, State nature reserve in Province of Ravenna, Italy.

Riserva naturale Salina di Cervia is a nature reserve covering about 765 hectares of interconnected salt pans throughout the landscape. The area creates a specialized habitat where numerous water birds rest, feed, and breed throughout the year.

Salt extraction here dates to Roman times, shown by archaeological finds, and the Po delta left a layer of silt that lets the pans hold water. The first post-Roman document mentioning the saltworks is from 965. The reserve was established by ministerial decree in 1979 and is also a Ramsar wetland.

The MUSA Salt Museum displays how salt production shaped local life and traditions over many generations. Visitors see the tools and methods that salt workers used to extract and process salt from these ponds.

The reserve lies in the municipality of Cervia, in the province of Ravenna, and covers about a third of the municipal area. The salt works is still active: the Camillone salt pan is worked by hand for demonstration, with salt drawn daily using wooden tools, while the industrial plant gathers its harvest once, in September. The saline is a Ramsar wetland and a reserve for animal populations, established by ministerial decree in 1979.

In 2023, the salt pans were intentionally flooded to help protect the town of Cervia from severe flooding affecting the Romagna region. This unusual modern use of the ponds demonstrates how the reserve still serves practical purposes beyond bird protection.