12 mayors and numerous other residents of the Shushica Valley and other regions of the Vjosa National Park, activists, lawyers and scientists gathered this morning in the village of Kuç on the banks of the Shushica River. They are protesting the plans of the government in Tirana to take the water from the Shushica and channel it to the Mediterranean
Bern Convention calls on Albania to stop airport construction near Narta Lagoon. Project in Vjosa Delta endangers thousands of migratory birds. Conservation organisations filed lawsuits against destructive and illegal construction.
The concession contract for small hydroelectric power plants in the Neretvica River basin has been terminated! 15 small hydroelectric power plants, which would have irreversibly destroyed the river ecosystem will not be built. The local population has been mighty fighting these plans for
The Ratajska river in southern Serbia will remain free flowing and the whole river basin of may be protected in the future. This is a great success for local and national activists. Following wide protest of the local population, supported by the Serbian Blue Heart Team „Pravo na Vodu“, the Ministry of Mining and Energy stopped
At a formal ceremony in Tepelena this morning, Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama and his Minister of the Environment and Tourism Mirela Kumbaro declared the River Vjosa a Wild River National Park. As from today, the entire River Vjosa in Albania from its border with Greece to the Adriatic sea and its free flowing tributaries – a river system totalling more than 400 kilometres in length – have the very high level of protection.
The feasibility study is the result of six months of extensive fieldwork and in-depth analysis by a team of over 30 experts in areas such as eco-tourism, geomorphology, ecology, planning and management of protected areas, sustainable financing of national parks, legislation, and social and environmental impact assessment.
Between April 17th and May 6th, eleven scientists went on an expedition to collect data on biodiversity as well as ecosystem functions for the entire Vjosa river network. With great effort, 300 river kilometers were sampled by use of the most state-of-the-art methods and equipment. The Vjosa’s exceptional value was confirmed once more:
