Two years after its landmark designation in March 2023 as Europe’s first Wild River National Park, the Vjosa River is under continuous pressure from extractive industries, infrastructure expansion, and mismanaged development, putting the park’s ecological integrity and its global conservation value at risk.
In a powerful display of solidarity and resistance, the Brave Women of Kruščica (BiH) visited the Shushica Valley in Albania to support the ongoing fight against the controversial water abstraction project. They formed a symbolic human chain together with locals across the Shushica.
Last Saturday, representatives of the communities of the Shushica river valley and other locals from Vlora and Vjosa valley travelled to Tirana to hand over a special petition to Prime Minister Edi Rama. People from 37 villages in the valley have united in a powerful statement against the water abstraction project from the Shushica River.
From 22 to 28 April 2024, a science delegation from Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Greece, and Italy collected multidisciplinary data in the partially undiscovered and intact Vjosa Delta. Every observation of this expedition aims to unveil the ecological importance of this area and advocate for its inclusion in the Vjosa Wild River National Park (WRNP) in accordance with IUCN standards.
On this year’s International Day of Forests on March 21st, we are proud to inaugurate our first tree nursery along the picturesque banks of the Vjosa River. The inauguration ceremony, held in Tepelena, marked the official launch of the ReForestVjosa project, a comprehensive reforestation initiative aimed at revitalizing the Vjosa's ecosystem and mitigating erosion along its shores.
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
Way forward for the 1st Transboundary Wild River National Park in Europe. An important step was taken on November 28th by the Greek Ministry of Environment and Energy with the designation of part of the catchment area of the transboundary river Aoos in Greece as a Protected Natural Formation and
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.
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.
