Vjosa, the last wild river in Europe, today was declared a National Park (Category II protected areas), on the basis of which the 272 kilometres long Vjosa-Aoös River, from its source to the flow into the sea, including its branches and tributaries, is granted complete national and cross-border protection in accordance with the highest international standards and it is effectively preserved as a free-flowing and living river for the benefit of the people and the nature n Albania, Greece and whole world.
A ceremony to mark the decision to declare the river a national park took place today in Tepelena with participation of Prime Minister Edi Rama, the Minister of Tourism and Environment Protection, Mirela Kumbaro, mayors of the districts of Gjirokaster, Fier and Vlora, representatives from the international environmental organizations, representatives of the diplomatic corps and other distinguished guests.
Vjosa River is designed to be a unique National Park for Albania, as well as for Europe, which will include the in another category of the European tourist map and will open up yet another new path toward the country’s sustainable economic and social development.
Prime Minister Rama described the decision as a milestone event in the efforts to protect nature and transform the mindset about nature.
* * *
This is a truly historic moment in the effort to protect nature and to transform the mindset about nature as a common space, where economic and social development and inheritance for the future generations as a relay of wellbeing can and should be seen quite differently from what we are usually used to, by seeking to brutally use nature.
This is an immensely crucial moment for our country as we are formalizing what we have wished for since the very onset, what we pledged since we took over office to govern and what took us time to make it come true, since it was not easy decision at all, but a tough one for a thousand and one reasons, declaring Vjosa a National Park.
Today we ensure everlasting protection of Europe’s last wild river and on our way to arrive here, we had many Europeans who, after taming their wild rivers to use them as they deemed it fit, headed to Vjosa to protect it against domestication. Many Europeans, after turning the tigers of their nature into domestic cats, warned us not to dare to domesticate our tiger.
Around 21% of Albania’s territory today is already designated as a protected area. This area was much smaller when we took office and we have kept expanding the area of protected zones each year and it is our target to further expand the protected area to 30% of the whole territory of the country. It is a very ambitious goal, but on the other hand, creating protected areas does not mean denying local residents in those areas or the communities the right to their economic and social development. Creating protected areas doesn’t mean that you should alienate people, but on the contrary, it means that you should give them a new development perspective and declaring Vjosa a national park would be insufficient, but instead you also need to know how.
This is why finding partners and allies is a must and the huge added value that company Patagonia and Ryan in person offer together with everyone else is the know-how, it is precisely the immense experience of having been living in constant search of highly efficient ways to boost economy and bring about more social success to the residents living in or near these protected areas.
Today, we are really proud of the many things we have delivered in terms of the environment and nature protection, in terms of protecting the assets, values and an array of countless species in Albania.
Albania is the only country in Europe enforcing an absolute hunting ban for several years now. We decided to ban hunting and we have already witnessed significant and inspiring regeneration of the fauna in the whole territory of the country.
In a nutshell, I would also like to point out the prerequisite for this park to house a centre of excellence, a research and projects development center that would coordinate all sources of knowledge about how to manage a National Park of this size in the 21st century, at this time of such great challenges.
An amount of $80 million is earmarked and will be made available for this park to make sure that the communities, the municipalities along which the Vjosa river flows through do not power sewage into the river and this amount will be translated into a major sewerage and drainage system project in all these municipalities to allow for cleaning and treatment of waste waters.
In the meantime, this amount will also include the financial assistance through grants or soft loans for businesses due to be launched in this territory, which will definitely be new businesses and nature-friendly ones, and not businesses that run counter the logics of this major transformation.
On the other hand, we have a fantastic example about which I’ve been talking with Ryan since we first met and which is Butrint Park.
Butrint Park is a model of success how people committed to cultural heritage, despite having different nationalities and living in other countries, they join the government, join the local authorities and create a structure and a synergy and make possible that funding is channelled from different sources to do utmost efforts for an asset, which is not only an asset of Albania and Albanians, but an asset of the whole planet.
Protecting an area doesn’t mean that you formalize its removal from the country’s economy. On the contrary, it means that you handle economic development differently under a completely different approach and it is a fact that national parks attract 20% more visitors compared to equally scenic landscapes but which are not protected areas and which are not treated equally like a national park.
Once again, I would like to thank each and every one of you and I don’t know but I was just told that someone keeps poking us about birds at the Vlora airport site. I would beg him to stop doing it. Our government has enhanced nature protection to a level higher than ever before and facts speak for themselves. We have been working to expand the area of the protected zone and we expect it to cover 30% of the country’s territory by 2030. Meanwhile, we have carried out all the processes, the procedures, consultations and the relevant studies and with the Vjosa’s tiger now tamed I would beg everyone here that frequently disturbs us by sending letters by making up facts about Vlora airport that they stop doing so.
Vlora airport is being constructed and will be constructed and in any case it would be an added value and it poses no threat whatsoever to the ecosystem, because we have already completed the relevant studies, we have discussed and examined it with high-level experts and every stakeholder involved in this process. We have considered and looked into the best models and the best international practices. It is a huge mountainous file about the Vlora airport project.
Thank you so much everyone!
