Update #20: Researcher from UK & week of meetings / July 7, 2024

In April 2024, Stephen Haywood contacted us to ask if we could participate in his research into reforestation practices in Albania and help him connect with institutions and other NGOs. We are really happy we organized a week of meetings and activities and gave him insight into the reforestation situation in Albania.

Stephen Haywood

Stephen lives in the UK and is part of Thames21, an NGO that works on improving rivers and canals for people and wildlife in the London area. Through his work, he has managed several reforestation, habitat restoration, and water quality projects.

He has been awarded The Churchill Fellowship for his research into best practices related to reforestation, natural regeneration, rewilding and forest habitat restoration. Stephen visited Albania to conduct interviews with institutions and NGOs involved with reforestation.

University of Agriculture in Tirana

We started our week visiting the Univesity of Agriculture in Tirana, where we met with Assoc. Prof. Leonidha Peri, Prof. Dr. Elvin Toromani and Dr. Ina Vejsiu from Faculty of Forestry.

The discussion focused on the state of reforestation in Albania, practices used in reforestation, and habitat restoration. We also discussed alternative approaches, such as natural regeneration and rewilding, in combination with traditional reforestation methods.

The need for research activities in data collection and verification of the growing patterns (which changed due to climate change), as well as building tree nurseries close to the reforestation areas, has been identified as incredibly important in the near future.

National Forestry Agency

The National Forestry Agency is responsible for management of forests outside of protected areas. Albania has 46% of it’s land covered by the forest managed by the AKP (Agjencia Kombëtare e Pyjeve) in respective municipalities and AKZM (Agjencia Kombetare e Zonave të Mbrojtura) in protected areas.

We met with Artur Kala, General Director of AKP, Behar Hate, Responsible of Forestry Evaluation Sector, Elsa Ahmetsula, Responsible of Projects and Scientific Research Sector, Kliti Starja, Director of Analysis and Performance Directory and Hektor Xhumara, Specialist of Analysis and Performance Directory.

The topics of discussion focused on the reforestation and management of forests in Albania, the methodologies of forest inventory as well different techniques in regeneration, afforestation and reforestation of Albanian forest land.

We talked about the “Year of Forests" in Albania and how are their efforts implemented in different Municipalities of the country. The challenges and importance of raising awareness initiatives and increasing capacities for institutions and civil society organizations.

They provided us with incredibly useful data and knowledge on regeneration and reforesting techniques, and shared copies of their work such as “National inventory of forest and pastures in Albania, ANFI 2021” and “Reforesting Manual”.

AdZM Dibër and AdZM Kukës

During the week, we visited two organizations responsible for protected areas, AdZM Dibër and AdZM Kukës. These regional organizations of the National Agency of Protected Areas are responsible for their respective regions.

Both regional organizations manage large areas and are responsible for Lurë-Mali i Dejës National Park, Shebenik National Park, Alpet e Shqipërisë Natural Park, Korab-Koritnik Natural Park, Liqeni i Ulzës Natural Park, Mali me Gropa-Bizë-Martanesh Natural Park, Munella Natural Park and 133 Natural Monuments combined!

In AdZM Dibër, we met with Bekim Qosja, Responsible for the Managing Sector, Durim Kaba, and Armela Gazidedja, Specialists in the Managing Sector. In AdZM Kukës, we met with Lefter Gjana, Director of AdZM Kukës, and Aurora Kastrati, Responsible for the Management Sector, who answered Stephen’s questions.

We discussed many topics related to the reforestation and rehabilitation of the degraded land in the protected areas, natural regeneration, functions and roles of AdZM and their cooperation with the CSOs. Discussion also lead to the overview of the required procedures for the NGOs, donors and other groups to implement projects within the protected areas.

PPNEA

In terms of the NGO sector, we met with Melitjan Nezaj and Klejn Ngracani from Protection and Preservation of Natural Environment in Albania (PPNEA) to discuss their work in reforestation, habitat restoration, biodiversity, and legal issues affecting Albanian protected areas.

As Stephen’s professional focus is not only on reforestation but also on water quality and rivers, we spent some time talking about PPNEA’s work in Vjosa, Divjaka, and Prespa National Parks, which are all closely connected to water.

In terms of reforestation, we discussed work PPNEA did within the context of the “Connectivity Conservation Areas” bio-corridors project on the border with North Macedonia in Korab-Koritnik Natural Park and their reforestation activities in Munella Natrual Park.

We spoke about natural regeneration as a practice for restoration. Here, PPNEA is working on the restoration project “Northern Forests Initiative” in Tropoja and Has municipalities. The approach to restoring the habitat combines different approaches, and reforestation is just one part of the puzzle.

Trees for Lurë

We visited both our tree nursery and 2021-2023 planting areas so that Stephen could get a hands-on view of our work in the Lurë-Mali i Dejës National Park. Stephen was interested in our approach, which involves building small, local, sustainable reforestation projects focusing on reforestation, production, community, and education.

The whole week has been quite intense. However, it has been beneficial for Stephen’s research and for us. We managed to identify many ways to improve and cooperate with the organizations we met to support reforestation in Albania.

Outcomes

The University of Agriculture saw great potential for cooperation in terms of research and data sharing, especially due to our unique high-altitude tree nursery and monitoring systems.

The National Forest Agency is interested in cooperating on replicating our model on the municipality level, helping to build the infrastructure for institutions and NGOs to support reforestation and afforestation.

AdZM Kukës was keen on our project in Lurë, and we discussed how it could be applied in the Kukës region, especially in areas heavily damaged by soil erosion.

PPNEA would be interested in building capacity for its work in Munella and Korab-Koritnik Natural Parks, where it is working on the “Connectivity Conservation Areas” bio-corridors project.

On behalf of the whole team,
Pavel