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VOA/Shkodër, experts are concerned about the damage to the Drin ecosystem
08:03, 19/11/2023

In the first regional conference "Integrated Forest Management along the Drin River Basin", held in Shkodër, environmental experts from Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro and North Macedonia raise concerns about the state of the largest water basin in the Balkan region. Western. With a length of 285 kilometers and a total area of ??the basin of 14173 km2, the Drini is one of the most important natural assets for the four countries of the region, so, according to the environmental expert, Mark Rupa, from the CNVP organization, "We protect the values ??of nature and people", the four countries are facing the same problems in managing the situation along the Drin water basin.

"The terrible transformations that this basin has had, especially during the last 50 years, especially from the construction of dams, from forest fires, illegal logging, the abandonment of the territory by people, requires taking urgent measures."

According to expert Kliti Starja, director of performance analysis at the National Forestry Agency of Albania, the problems in the Drin watershed have a direct impact on the economy of the northern region of Albania, but also on the future of the country's largest hydropower plants, which were built on the Drin cascade.

"Since we have the degradation of forest surfaces, maybe as a result of mismanagement, but mainly as a result of fires, an effect that is also related to climate change, it means that the erosion of the basin has increased and we will have faster filling of hydropower plants located on this river in Albania. And we also have energy challenges related to the Drin watershed".

In Albania, according to INSTAT, during the last 10 years, 23,815 hectares of forests and pastures have been burned by fires, a large part in the northern area of ??the country where the water basin of the Drin river also lies.

With the climate changes of recent years, says the expert Starja, even in the forest sector, the challenges are global, so the solutions must be coordinated between the countries of the region, in order to respond in time to the climate changes.

The Drin basin, according to expert from Kosovo Tahir Ahmeti, director of the forestry department in the Ministry of Agriculture of Kosovo, constitutes almost half of the territory of Kosovo and the main forest resources are located there, which makes it one of the most important natural and economic values . Since we are proud to be the first of the Drin's streams, he says, it is up to us to take responsibility for the pollution, but also for the cases of mismanagement that occur in the bed of the Drin River.

"I believe that the main problem is erosion, soil, stones, other materials carried by the Drini and deposited around it. There is a long history of this issue in Kosovo. Immediately after the war, the only source of construction material, sand and gravel, was taken from Drini. This has greatly degraded the river bed, but this has also been helped by the illegal logging that has taken place in the forests."

In the first regional conference "Integrated management of forests along the Drin river basin", experts emphasized the fact that the consequences of mismanagement, unilateral interventions in the ecosystem and damages caused to this water basin by climate change and human interventions, bring consequences for the four countries of the region through which the Drini flows.

The importance of the Drin basin has prompted the CNVP organization, with the financial support of the Austrian Agency for Cooperation and Development, to undertake the three-year project for the integrated management of forest areas in the transboundary catchment area of ??the Drin River, which extends to Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia of the North and Montenegro, harmonizing development policies and promoting the involvement of local communities in the integrated good management of the natural ecosystem of this common river./VOA/

https://www.syri.net/amp/index.php?id=640277