Protection Study of the Vjosa River Valley – Phase 1
The Aoos-Vjosa River runs for 272 km from its sources in Greece to its mouth in southern Albania, where it drains into the Adriatic Sea. The first 80 km are in Greece. The total catchment area covers 6,704 km2, of which 4,365 km2 lies in Albanian territory.
This study is a contribution to the process of protecting the Vjosa River Valley, coordinated by the Ministry of Tourism and Environment and National Agency of Protected Areas (NAPA), from the perspective of the IUCN Protected Area Standards. It considers both the physical and ecological characteristics of the area, and the management objectives and appropriate protection regimes arising from the Albanian system of protected area categories, to ensure the long-term protection of the ecological character and biodiversity of the Vjosa River Valley. The study outlines the fact that any change in water volumes and sediment transport would dramatically alter the last river ecosystem of its kind in the Balkans and on a wider European scale, and disrupt the migration route of globally endangered fish species.
The protection of the existing natural phenomena and features, together with the rich cultural heritage, should be based on the establishment of a protected area, where the core protection sub-zone should be concentrated along the narrow riverbed (wider only in the middle section of the Vjosa River) and its tributaries and the brackish, coastal Narta Lagoon.
The concept of protecting the wild river and its tributaries is based on strict protection of the entire narrow riverbed of the rivers, while allowing existing traditional land use activities (such as agriculture and grazing) to continue if managed for subsistence use and not on an industrial scale, with the possibility of developing the entire Vjosa River Valley as an excellent area for green, cultural and recreational tourism.
Although the brackish Narta Lagoon is not directly connected to the freshwater river ecosystem of the River Vjosa estuary in an ecological context, it is of significant conservation value at the national and global scales, and should be part of the Vjosa River Valley protected area.
The Vjosa River Valley meets the IUCN definition of a protected area, as evidenced by compliance with the common objectives for protected areas derived from the IUCN protected area definition.
