JICA project on Divjake-Karavasta national park ready to kick off

TIRANA, Jan. 13 – The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has announced it will soon start implementing a new project in Albania focusing on the conservation and sustainable use of the Divjake-Karavasta National Park. The project’s implementation will officially kick off next April with the participation of local government units and stakeholders.
The purpose of the project is to establish the system for conservation and sustainable use of the Divjake-Karavasta National Park based on the management plan, together with the active participation of local governments and stakeholders. As a part of project activities, Japanese experts will provide machinery, equipment and other materials necessary for the implementation of the project and organize technical training in Japan or in a third country for Albanian personnel related to the project.
Based on the national Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan of 2000, the Government of Albania aims to conserve biodiversity through the designation of the new Protected Areas or extension of the existing ones.
The National Park Divjake-Karavasta is one of the extended Protected Areas in Albania which is one of the most beautiful and preferred places on the sea coast. Furthermore, the park is the part of the coastal area of the country which is estimated as the most important and valuable from the economic perspective.
An increasing number of visitors to the park is recently considered as a potential threat to biodiversity of the area. Therefore a better management based on sustainable development is needed urgently. Though the Government of Albania is trying to elaborate a management plan for all national parks including this park, it faces limited experience and capabilities of staff, lack of equipment and budget. In this context, the Government of Albania requested technical cooperation to manage the Divjake-Karavasta Park appropriately by applying utilized experience to manage protected areas in Japan.
JICA activities in Albania have focused on improvement of medical equipment for regional level emergency centers. Based on the long-term strategy for the development of the Albanian health system in 2004 and the Strategy of Emergency Medical System Reform in Albania launched in June 2007, the Government of Albania has set the goal to establish an emergency medical service system as well as to improve the emergency sections at regional hospitals in order to provide basic and standard emergency medical services nationwide in Albania.
Under such circumstances the Government of Japan approved the project on February 2, 2010 and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has provided emergency medical equipment, diagnostic imaging equipment, clinical laboratory equipment, ambulances and emergency lifesaving equipment to the 14 medical emergency centers nationwide for the modernization of the medical emergency centers.