Two further areas - both located on the Balkan Green Belt in Macedonia - are likely to be designated national parks. These two areas, the Shar Planina Mountains in the north of the country on the Kosovo border, and the Jablanica Mountains along the border between Macedonia and Albania, have one thing in common: they host an unequalled diversity of plant and animal species in Europe.
On occasion of their meeting with the Macedonian minister for environment, Dr. Nexhati Jakupi, EuroNatur director Gabriel Schwaderer and project leader Annette Spangenberger, as well as professor Ljupcho Melovski of the Macedonian partner organization MES and Uwe Riecken of the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation, all stressed the ecological significance of both these natural treasures being an essential part of the European Green Belt.
Environment minister Jakupi shares this view and assured to speed up the designation of the Jablanica mountains as a national park. On Albanian territory, this mountain range is a nature reserve already since 2008. Now, the aim is to establish the nature reserve on Macedonian territory as well, in order to create a large-sized protected area of 500 square kilometers on the Green Belt. According to environment minister Jakupi, the Shar Planina Mountains in the north of Macedonia will be declared a national park very soon.
Within the scope of the European Green Belt Initiative, EuroNatur has been officially coordinating the conservation activities on the Balkan Green Belt, the southernmost section of the European Green Belt, since 2004.
More about EuroNatur's projects on Balkan Green Belt