Update #8 / September 21, 2021

I’m incredibly happy I can share (finally) some good news! A lot has been done in terms of planning and paperwork and all the hard work finally paid off! We have a green light for the Autumn activities!

AKZM and AdZM approval

The biggest milestone for us as an organisation was to obtain required permission to operate within the Lurë National Park from AKZM and AdZM Dibër.

We have received positive response from the AKZM and AdZM and are officially allowed to work in the national park.

We managed to establish good relationship and communication channels with AdZM Dibër. I’d have to thank Mr. Atrit Lika and AdZM Dibër for their support and suggestions.

New combination of trees

Based on the feedback from AdZM we are changing the combination of the trees which we plant. Black pine (Pinus nigra) is not the wrong species but it’s the least favourable by the AdZM.

New tree combination consists of 50% Balkan pine (Pinus Peuce), 30% Abies alba (Silver fir) and 20% European beech (Fagus sylvatica).

This combination results in a mixed forest of conifers and deciduous trees which belongs to Lurë.

I’m very positive about focusing on Balkan pine (Pinus Peuce) because it is an endangered species, used to be in Lurë and it’s population was destroyed by logging.

New area

We visited locations around Liqeni i Zi (Black lake) in past weeks to assess the area and make the final decision on its suitability to plant.

Decision has been made (consulted with the AdZM) to change the location where we plant with saplings from A1,A2 / Liqeni i Zi to our backup area A7 / Liqeni i Luleve.

Main reason is the difficult terrain around Liqeni i Zi which would make digging holes complicated and expensive. There is also an advantage to use A7 are as it’s much bigger (more than 11ha) and can continue working in the same area next year.

Planting with seeds trial

We are not abandoning the Lieqni i Zi, on the contrary. We will use this area to test planting with seeds instead of saplings. This could be huge!

There are vast areas of the Lurë National Park which are really difficult to reforest with saplings and planting with seeds is an ideal method in this case.

Planting with seeds would allow us to scale up the reforestation effort while keeping it economically viable.

What’s next?

We have the last 6 weeks to execute this year’s goals and things are moving fast now, which is super exciting!

We are on track, and everything is organised to start digging 2 500 holes during the last September weekend and first October weekend.

Preliminary dates for the events to plant the trees are set the 23rd - 31st October.

Make sure to follow us on Instagram & Facebook updates are coming.

On behalf of the whole team,
Pavel