The Vjosa-Narta space in Albania is a vital stopover website for migrating birds between Europe and Africa and is among the most vital wetlands in all the Adriatic Flyway. This protected space is house to over 70 endangered species, 200 chicken species, and noteworthy creatures such because the Loggerhead turtle, the Monk seal, and the Albanian Water frog. Nonetheless, this jewel is liable to being misplaced eternally because of the building of an unlawful airport.
In a bid to finish the undertaking as shortly as doable, the Albanian authorities bypassed a number of obligatory procedures, together with acquiring a sound building allow. The newest findings recommend that the development allow was solely granted in 2023, 15 months after the beginning of building works. One 12 months after the launch of the development, the federal government additionally eliminated the airport website from the Vjosa-Narta Protected Panorama, making a spatial hole in the midst of the protected space.
This marks the start of the top of protected areas in Albania, a rustic that has quickly developed at an unprecedented price, however sadly, not in the best path for nature. Mockingly, the Albanian authorities advertises the undertaking as a instrument to spice up tourism within the south of the nation – failing to understand that Albania’s breathtakingly lovely nature itself is among the essential vacationer sights. Destroying it for the sake of tourism simply doesn’t make sense. Worryingly, this airport might be step one in a protracted journey to urbanize the Albanian shoreline for the sake of vested pursuits.
Dalmatian Pelican, copyright Zoltan Baczo, from the surfbirds galleries
On high of that, a latest report from the Swiss Ornithological Centre factors out that the development of an airport inside such a bird-rich space will create a extreme threat of airplane collisions with birds. A collision with one of many largest birds on the earth, the Dalmatian Pelican (Pelecanus crispus), which breeds within the environment of the deliberate airport, is more likely to finish in a disaster.
However all hope will not be misplaced. Native NGOs AOS and PPNEA have filed two lawsuits in opposition to their authorities which can be nonetheless ongoing: one in opposition to the development of the airport and a second lawsuit in opposition to the choice to vary the boundaries of the protected space.
The worldwide group will not be sitting nonetheless both. This September, the Bern Conference on the Conservation of European Wildlife requested the suspension of the development works till a sound Environmental Affect Evaluation is carried out, assembly worldwide technical, scientific, and methodological requirements.
Along with the Mediterranean Alliance for Wetlands, the BirdLife Partnership has addressed letters to the European Fee, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, and the Worldwide Air Transport Affiliation, asking them to instantly cease the development works and protect this emblem of Mediterranean biodiversity.
In the meantime, AOS and PPNEA have proposed various options to establishing a brand new airport, akin to extending the scale of Tirana Worldwide Airport, constructing a high-speed railway to attach the south of the nation with Tirana, or contemplating various places for the airport akin to Risili, Kafaraj, or Levan, after conducting a correct environmental and threat evaluation.
