Protests broke out in Albania on Saturday in opposition to a brand new airport being constructed close to a chicken sanctuary on the Adriatic coast.
The Vjosa-Narta lagoon is an important cease for flocks of birds of their annual migration between Europe and Africa. The world was declared a protected panorama in 2004.
Environmentalists say the airport might threaten round 200 chicken species, together with flamingos and pelicans.
Set to be the most important within the nation, the airport will serve the southwestern metropolis of Vlore on Albania’s Adriatic coast. The federal government hopes it is going to increase tourism within the typically neglected Balkan nation.
Why are environmentalists protesting in opposition to Albania’s new airport?
Albania’s new airport is being constructed on the sting of the Vjosa-Narta protected space and within the flight path of migratory birds.
The world has excessive ecological worth and eco-tourism potential, however these could possibly be ruined by the venture.
The lagoon is a vital feeding and nesting website for Dalmatian pelicans, that are thought of ‘close to threatened’ by the Worldwide Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). These birds have been as soon as near disappearing in Albania earlier than conservation efforts have been remodeled the previous decade.
The airport might scale back their habitat and disrupt their motion, in addition to that of different species.
Greater than 100 environmentalists and ornithologists gathered on the airport’s constructing website on Saturday to oppose the plans.
“For individuals who assume this airport will deliver growth, in actuality it is going to deliver solely destruction,” mentioned vacationer information Alben Kola on the protest.
Does Albania’s new airport breach biodiversity legal guidelines?
The European Union, which Albania goals to hitch sooner or later, says the airport venture was undertaken in contradiction with nationwide legal guidelines and worldwide biodiversity safety conventions that Albania has ratified.
Each the Berne Conference, which works to guard European wildlife and pure habitats, and the Worldwide Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) say Albania ought to droop the development of the airport.
“This nature wealth belongs not solely to us however to the entire of Europe, and overseas governments are doing extra to guard it than we do,” says Joni Vorpsi, from NGO Safety and Preservation of Pure Surroundings in Albania (PPNEA), which has been preventing for years to guard the lagoon.
In November an Albanian courtroom rejected a lawsuit filed by native NGOs in opposition to the development of the airport, however they plan to attraction.
The airport venture launched in December 2021 and is due for completion on the finish of 2024.
How might Albania’s new airport impression birds?
Vorpsi says the airport not solely would destroy avian habitats however increase the chance of plane collisions with massive birds.
Vjosa-Narta is among the most vital wetlands complexes in the entire Adriatic Flyway, in keeping with PPNEA (Safety and Preservation of Pure Surroundings in Albania). Lots of of 1000’s of birds cease there every year throughout their spring and autumn migrations.
It’s also a candidate for the Emerald website community, which supplies shelter to greater than 62 species of birds listed within the EU Birds directive.
The Swiss agency main the airport venture, Mabetex, says the take-off and touchdown paths of planes wouldn’t have an effect on chicken routes.
It says the runway can be 3.5 km from the chicken sanctuary and 5 km away from main chicken migration routes.
Read the full article here
