8 minutes agoDW analysis: All protected areas in Albania are at risk
Periskopi(2 years ago)
(2 years ago)According to experts with the new law, there will be no more protected areas in Albania, including all national parks that will not escape destruction and sale. When Ivanka and Tiffany Trump sisters visited Albania with their husbands last July, on two separate visits, but within [...]
According to experts with the new law, there will be no more protected areas in Albania, including all national parks that will not escape destruction and sale.
When sisters Ivanka and Tiffany Trump visited Albania with their husbands last July, on two separate visits, but within a few days, the news spread quickly and aroused everyone's interest. It was thought that the influx of tourists who chose the country's south primarily as destination attracted and the attention of the Trump sisters, girls of former US President Donald Trump. But what was most seen was the break on the coast of Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kouchner, founder and director of the American company “Affinity Partners”, the US investment firm. The couple had their second visit to Albania, after their first visit in 2021, during which they again visited the south, a year corresponding to the foundation of the company.
A few days ago Kouchner announced to his social networks that he was enthusiastic about sharing some preliminary images of projects he plans to implement on the Albanian coast. The selected areas of “Affinity Partners” are the island of Saban and Zvrneci, places located within protected areas in Albania.
Sazan and Zvrneci first seen
The news was a surprise, but followed the turmoil in changing the Law on Protective Areas in Albania, which was warned as danger by local and foreign environmental experts. “Legal 21/2024 allows construction of 5-star mega-resties in the Protected Zones.
In addition, with the National Territorial Council's decision, construction of almost every other investment is allowed and there are no red lines, as told by the Ministry of Tourism and Environment. Decisions are already made, not on the basis of management plans drafted by experts, but by the KKT, which is a political organ.
The subzoning has been removed in the Protected Units of the V category “Supported”. So, under the new law, it can now be built in the former central subzonings of these protected areas, which by law 81/2017 was prohibited. The new law no longer protects the nature and protected areas in Albania, but it is the most destructive law against conservation of nature that has ever been adopted by Albania's pluralist parliament” analyzes for Deutsche Welle Mirjan Topi, environmental engineer.
The Most Destructive Law on Nature
Gabriel Schwaderer, director of the international environmental association Euro Navur, who has been lobbiing for years for the protection of rich biodiversity areas in Albania, says he is shocked by changing the law on protected areas. “The Narta Laguna, along with the Vjosa River delta, is one of the most important leagues of world migration of birds to the Mediterranean. If the project presented and destroyed were implemented, it would completely devalue the values of the Vjo protected zone - Sure and it's gonna be a nature betrayal. This protected area awaits 5 bird species that make up at least 1% of their total biogeography.
According to the Ramsar Convention, such areas require protection. Since Albania has signed this Convention, then this requirement is still in force. Furthermore, Albanian authorities have defined the Vjo-Narts ecosystem as the area "Emerald" under the Bern Convention. As a result, even if Albania changes the law, this area still remains under the protection of international law” ) says of DW the head of {Euro Natur.
Should the EU continue its membership agenda with Albania?
Another question that EuroNatur raises relates to Albania's path towards the European Union. Our quest for EU policymakers is: Should the EU continue its membership agenda, if a candidate country is obviously not linked to EU laws but instead changes the country's laws, making them worse? From our point of view, this is a very serious situation and requires a very clear message from EU institutions for Albanian authorities” ) stresses Schwaderer.
Deutsche Welle also contacted the European Union Delegation in Tirana for a comment on the situation. The European Commission has recommended in its 2023 report to Albania that the country must significantly improve the quality of environmental and strategic impact assessments on projects, as well as implement and monitor recommendations stemming from these estimates. Furthermore, in the same report, the European Commission stressed that legislation on strategic investments raises concerns about biodiversity protection, as it could allow for major tourist and industrial investments in protected areas dealt with the EU in Tirana.
In response, the EU underlines that we have forwarded to Albanian authorities, the European Union pays close attention to environmental issues under membership negotiations and will continue to discuss with Albanian authorities the proper approach of Albanian legislation with the EU acquis, as well as to monitor its implementation.
Other areas protected at risk?
According to environmental engineer Mirjan Topi, changing the law on protected areas has been changed to the function of these investments. It is now clear that the law has been ordered, because there is no other explanation of the majority's haste to adopt it, and even without the President's decree, concrete projects emerged. ”
But unlike the alarm and analysis of environmental experts, Prime Minister Rama two days ago from the Socialist Party Assembly mentioned geopoliticality, besides tourism, and stressed that the company planning to build in Saba and Zvrinec, has built in other areas protected by the U. NESTO. But the truth that matters in this middle is not how uncoherent these alarms are, about the danger facing Albanian nature from the laws of protected areas or from the fallout in Saban of the world's most prestigious hotel firm, Amman Hotels&Resorts, which has built a dozen structures in the fabulous areas of U. NESTO in Asia and the Middle East. The truth that matters in this middle is that Albania, the tourism champion in the region in 2030, is not a slogan to fuel the illusion of a bright tomorrow, but a geopolitical and economic project, which is being shaped with concrete plans and measures that create the possible space for this historic development.”
The question of whether this law will open the game for other protected areas, Topi points out that “now are all at risk, primarily the protected Peizzaza.
While Schwaderer from Euro planetur” fears the former project in Karavasta National Park, which was canceled years ago, following opposition from environmental organisations. “It is already known that the Kingcoast Divjakaʹ project, which plans to build that giant tourist resorts inside Karavasta National Park are back on schedule. It was promoted seven years ago and then disappeared, but is now back on stage with the potential to destroy one of the most important areas of the bird resort across the eastern Adriatic coast. With the new law, there will be no more protected areas in Albania, including all national parks that will not escape destruction and sale”./DW
