TIRANA, January 24 /ATA/ After completion of the feasibility study by the group of Albanian and foreign experts, Albania’s Ministry of Tourism and Environment has drafted the plan for the announcement of the protected environmental area “Vjosa Valley National Park” and has held the first hearing session.
Minister of Tourism and Environment Mirela Kumbaro was also present at the hearing. She emphasized in her post on social media that, “The hearings and other public consultations will continue in Vlora, Tepelena and Gjirokastra, to prepare the official announcement by spring”.
During this hearing, Minister Kumbaro said that, “In respect of the work done by a great team at the Biodiversity Summit last December in Canada, the Vjosa River was one of the most important events. I believe that Albania has reason to be proud and especially the team of experts and organizations that worked on it”.
The expert of the Ministry of Tourism and Environment present at this hearing said that, “This wild river actually consists of a giant mosaic of different types of habitats”.
Another expert stated that, “We are currently talking about a territory with an area of 11,822 hectares which is the central area and this exceeds the percentage required of 75%, so it is much more. The group of experts proposes to the Ministry of Tourism and Environment the declaration of Vjosa in the first phase as a National Park, which includes Vjosa, Shushica, Bënça, Drino and its branch Kardhiqi, and further on proposes to the Ministry to follow work in 2023 for the second phase of declaring Vjosa a National Park”.
After six months of intensive work by a team of 30 national and international experts, the document “Vjosa Wild River – National Park – Vision and Feasibility Study” was submitted to the National Agency of Protected Areas, drawn up according to international protection standards and bears the seal of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
On June 13, 2022, there was signed the Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Tourism and the Environment and the American organization “Patagonia” for the launch of joint work to declare Vjosa a “National Park”.
Because the Vjosa River and its valley is a very complex park, international expertise has been obtained in addition to the internal one, so that all the procedures for declaring Vjosa a National Park are of the highest international standards. /j.p/p.s./
