A large and unsustainable tourism development project in Albania, known as “Divjakë Resort Albania”, was halted in the spring. It would have allowed the construction of a tourism resort at the core area of Divjaka-Karavasta National Park, aiming to exploit 12 kilometers of coastline and bring up to 18,000 visitors per day.
The Mediterranean Wetlands Alliance [1], driven by the Tour du Valat, and now an active member of MAVA’s Outcome Action Plan on the protection and sustainable development of Coastal Wetland areas [2], has contributed to this success.
At the end of 2019, the Mediterranean Wetlands Alliance had sent a letter to the Government of Albania expressing its concerns about the reassessment of the country’s legislation in terms of the protection of national natural areas (https://tourduvalat.org/en/actualites-en/protection-of-coastal-wetlands-in-albania-the-mediterranean-wetlands-alliance-lobbies-the-local-government/ [3]).
Nevertheless, other projects are underway and Albania’s protected coastal areas are still under threat (https://mava-foundation.org/tourism-development-project-halted-in-albania/ [4]).
The activities of the Mediterranean Wetlands Alliance are funded in the framework of the project “Civil Society Organizations & Sustainable Management of Wetlands in the Mediterranean” by the Agence Française de Développement (AFD [5]) and the French Facility for Global Environment (FFEM [6]).