Plans for a large holiday complex on the Albanian Karavasta Lagoon have been scrapped after the government in Tirana threw out the project. As a result, the internationally important wetland area will be preserved.
On the Karavasta Lagoon nature still has prerogative.
© Katharina Grund/EuroNatur
In the old pine forests of the national park, there are still ideal conditions to grow: a young Hermann's Tortoise
© EuroNaturThe Karavasta Lagoon, situated on Albania’s Adriatic coast, is one of the country’s most important areas of retreat for rare plants and animals thanks to the richness of its landscape. It is here, for example, that threatened Dalmatian pelicans have their only breeding colony in Albania. And it is here, of all places, that an investor had planned to build an enormous holiday complex for up to 18,000 guests. Despite protests from EuroNatur and its Albanian partner organisations, the government in Tirana had long been positively disposed towards the construction project. But now there has been an about-turn.
Taulant Bino, head of the Albanian nature conservation organisation AOS, is clearly relieved. “This is finally a good news in the dim days of the revision of the network of protected areas. This decision shows that fighting to protect nature does pay off.” In Albania further important decisions on environmentally destructive infrastructure projects are due in the near future. EuroNatur will campaign, with its partners, for the right of nature in the Adriatic state.