TIRANA, Nov. 25 – With few months to go before a two-year ban on hunting expires, the Albanian government has undertaken new legal action to tighten penalties against illegal hunting to protect the country’s wildlife population.
The new changes to the law have doubled fines on illegal hunting and failure to report the killed animals of up to 150,000 lek (€1,070).
A consultative council on wild fauna and hunting will also be set up as an advisory body to the environment minister while hunters will have to follow training courses by NGOs engaged in wildlife protection.
The two-year ban, imposed in an effort to stop the extinction of several endangered wildlife on hunting expires in March 2016.
The environment ministry says brown bears and eagles are now seriously endangered in mountainous areas of Albania. The number of pheasants and wild quail has also fallen dramatically.
