Albanian officials on Monday declared the Vjosa River and its tributaries a future national park, a move aimed at preserving what they called one of the last wild rivers in Europe.

The Albanian Ministry of Tourism and Environment signed an agreement with the California-based environmental organization Patagonia to develop an “integrated and sustainable plan” for the new park.

“This is an opportunity to protect one of Europe ‘s rivers, truly one of Europe’s most precious rivers” Ryan Gellert of Patagonia told the Associated Press.

Patagonia, together with other environmental groups EcoAlbania, Riverwatch and EuroNatur, will help organize and fund a panel of international and local experts, who will design the framework for the park and also raise “worldwide awareness of this”. natural beauty”.

The Vjosa River is 270 kilometers long, flowing from the forested slopes of the Pindus Mountains of Greece to the Adriatic coast of Albania.
Scientists say the Vjosa ecosystem is home to 1,100 species, 13 of which are at high risk of extinction. It also has ecological, cultural and economic value for the 60,000 Albanians living on its shores.

The proclamation as a national park will enrich “the generations that will inherit the Vjosa in a way that is a new unexplored road in Europe”, said the Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama.

He said the government has canceled its construction plans for eight hydropower plants in the Vjosa and its tributaries that would generate electricity for the small Western Balkan country. Environmentalists say the dams would have caused serious damage to the river.

Officials did not say what would be done with the half-built hydropower plant in Kalivac in Vjosa.

“The agreement is a serious step towards starting a joint project of many actors, not just the government, in the construction of the national park,” said Olsi Nika of EcoAlbania, one of the groups that opposed the construction of the dams.

Both Nika and Gellert said it took years before the national park became official. It is currently a protected area. Neither the government nor environmental groups can immediately say how big the new park will be – assuming this is a question for the panel of experts – but Rama said it would be the largest in Albania.

By 2021 many villagers and environmental activists had opposed the government plan to build more than 30 hydropower plants along the Vjosa River. According to local experts and activists, building the dams would overturn large areas and damage the ecosystem.