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Dozens of bitumen mines in the valley, how is the Vjosa park space being affected?

Politiko 2025-06-25 22:10:50

Dozens of bitumen mines in the valley, how is the Vjosa park space being

In addition to oil wells, according to the National Agency for Natural Resources, in the municipality of Selenica there are 13 mines or plants for the extraction and processing of sand, bituminous gravel, and limestone.

These are the bitumen mines in Selenica. As you can see, the waste is deposited along the riverbank, creating numerous terraces on its banks, changing the natural bed.

'We have a wild river precisely because of its characteristics, that it has a wild bed untouched by human hands, when it is changed by industry it means that we are violating this natural ecosystem,' said Besjana Guri, an environmental protection activist.


Even for these mining activities, the management plan suggests that they be discontinued, in accordance with the Law on Protected Areas.

It also foresees interventions that are outside the protected park, since the strictly protected park is only the river's waterline, which, according to experts, complicates its implementation.

'In some cases, the activities envisaged are general and require extraordinary funds. Some of these activities exceed the boundaries of the park, which requires good cooperation between many institutions to resolve them, which we lack in Albania, requires a lot of decision-making will, often political, and requires a lot of money,' said Kristi Bashmilli, environmental researcher.

'Many of these activities will have to be modified and adapted to the rules of the national park. Some of them will even have to go away. The oil and bitumen industries cannot coexist in a national park, it is an absolutely impossible mission for mining to be disciplined,' said Olsi Nika, hydrologist/ ECOALBANIA

'You can't dump crude oil into a river. This doesn't happen, whether it's a national park or not, it will have to be removed and the management plan sets a phase for exiting operations for certain activities, but most of it should be adopted,' said Olsi Nika, hydrologist/ ECOALBANIA

The Achilles heel for the non-implementation of the management plan, which has been lying in the drawers of the Ministry of Tourism since September 2024, seems to be related to the new amendments to the law on protected areas. More specifically, while experts were working on the management plan for the Vjosa National Park, a group of socialist deputies initiated and amended the law on protected areas in parliament. The amendments affected articles 16 and 33, which, unlike the previous law that gave strict protection to the central area, the new law opened the way for investments. Top Story

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