Albania’s government to increase punishments on environmental damage

TIRANA, March 19 – Albania’s government sees environmental issues as a priority in the context of the integration into the European Union, according a presentation at a conference held last week.
Authorities discussed on how to jointly work with the two projects funded from the EU to protect the environment in the country which has suffered massive damage during the past two post-communist decades.
Albania also wants to make punishments tougher on those who continue to cause further damage.
Justice Minister Nasip Naco said Albania had already consolidated the legal framework on the environment. But punishments in the criminal code for those who break the law should be increased, as “the current measures are not enough,” he noted.
Naco’s announcement follows a decision of the environment ministry to impose a two-year moratorium on hunting, amid worrying reports that fauna and flora are being decimated.
Independent studies and data collected by the department of biodiversity show that over the past decade Albania’s wildlife population has declined sharply.
Blaming illegal hunting, the large number of unregistered hunting rifles and the government’s failure to collect fines, Environment Minister Lefter Koka, said that there had been a decline of between 30 to 50 per cent in species that may be hunted, such as wild rabbits, foxes and mountain quail, but also in the populations of species that are protected.