Natural Heritage of the Karaburun-Sazan Marine Park
Orikumi, Vlora 28 August 2014
The second day finds us in Orikum holding a meeting with representatives of the community living near the Karaburun-Sazani national park. Many local inhabitants and some tourism businesses benefit from fishery resources of the park, development of coastal tourism and Karaburun’s pastures for livestock. "The tourism of nature exploration is only in its early years here" - said Nexhip Hysolakoj, deputy mayor of Orikum - "along the marine park you can dive for marine archeology, find amazing caves, secluded beaches, ancient city of Orik or exert water sports. This park has great opportunities in front of it which could enrich and diversify the entire tourism package of Vloras’ area."
The meetings on the only marine park of Albania bring to light main problems such as illegal fishing with explosives, extensive exploitation by some local aquaculture businesses, the lack of a processing plant for wastewater and poor functioning of the Fisheries Inspectorate. In addition, the representatives from local tourism business mention the difficulties they face to get permissions by Pashaliman military base when they guide tourist groups in the park. A real gem of nature that for the reasons of the "Cold War" is unknown and not yet discovered by the Albanians themselves.
In national park of Llogara we heard that residents of the Dukat village have not allowed "foreign hunters" to exercise this kind of sport in "their home" as randomly happened in other parks in the country. 80% of the families in the village depend on the pastures of Llogara park and Karaburun. Further on, speaking about the impact of parks on local economies and that of the country, Genti Kromidha, biodiversity expert at INCA (Institute for Nature Conservation in Albania) says that "Protected areas comprise 16% of the Albanian territory and they carry a significant importance for the economy of the country. From a preliminary analysis of the data collected by WWF in 10 national parks, we see clearly those sectors that highly benefit from the existence of the protected areas. Translated into measurable economic profits or not, the national parks carry special values for the sectors such as: tourism, supply of population with drinking water, energy through firewood and provision for livestock".
Meetings with local stakeholders that were organized within the project "Dinaric Arch Parks" aim collection of the data that will help central and local institutions comparing existing information on protected areas and especially during the preparation phase of park’s management plans. Fortunately, three national parks of Albanian Riviera were protected by massive damage but they still expect a viable plan for future development. At this point, the participants seemed pessimistic saying that they fear the future of an "asset without an owner". We left those parks cherishing the beautiful landscapes and hoping that soon, someone, somewhere above will come to its senses and "find the right master" of these small havens which stand against daily threat of gunpowder and concrete.
