TIRANA, April 4 /ATA/ Minister of Tourism and Environment Mirela Kumbaro stated today that the legal changes for the protected areas aim to guarantee a balance between the development of communities in areas with tourist potential, while protecting nature and biodiversity.
During interpellation on the law of protected areas today in the Parliament, requested by DP lawmaker Ina Zhupa, Kumbaro emphasized that, “The Ministry of Tourism and Environment finds that, despite the fact that many protected areas in the countries of the European Union are administered by municipalities and local regional authorities, Albania must continue to keep the control and administration of these areas focused on the Agency of Protected Areas, which the amended law already guarantees”.
This problem, continued Kumbaro, appears mostly in municipalities that have a very large territory of protected areas, from Pusteci, which is 100% protected area, to Përmet, Pogradeci, Vlora, Gjirokastra or Mati, where the areas protected occupy from 10% to 80% of the territory.
“The National Agency of Protected Areas and the Ministry of Tourism and Environment have given dozens of negative responses to requests for high-level and elite tourist projects, but also for family projects of land owners in various municipalities of the country who have clearly identified tourism as a path for the development of the family economy”, said Kumbaro, clarifying that the legal changes for the protected areas aim to guarantee a balance between the development of communities in areas with tourist potential while protecting nature and biodiversity.
Minister Kumbaro also mentioned all the decisions of the ruling majority that over the years have increased the area of protected areas to 21.5% of the territory of Albania.
Regarding the law, Kumbaro clarified that it is in accordance with the international standards of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which Albania joined for the first time in 2024.
“The amended law is in accordance with international environmental protection standards such as those of the IUCN and the relevant European directives, and above all with the spirit of the times, to achieve the necessary balance between the protection of nature and biodiversity”. /r.e/p.s./
