The most relevant natural hazards risks for Albania include seismology, floods and fires
TIRANA, April 25 – A two-year project aimed at assisting Albania in improving its capacity to prepare to seismologic risk has been launched as part of the One-Un Programme.
The Albanian Culture and Tourism Ministry says the project worth USD 210,000 will build capacity in natural risk preparedness for cultural sites in important archeological sites such as Butrint, Gjirokastra and Berat, all of which are protected as UNSECO World Heritage sites.
The project “Building Capacity in Natural Risk Preparedness for Cultural Heritage Sites in Albania” is a One-UN-Programme related activity under the priority area environmentally sustainable development.
The launch of the project in Tirana on April 19 enabled the interested stakeholders to get acquainted with the project main features and outlines. It convened the local managers and authorities responsible for cultural heritage sites (including World Heritage Sites), other local stakeholders, national and international experts in seismology and cultural heritage. The purpose was to share a view of the state of the art in practices and recommendations on disaster risk management (DRM) in cultural properties and the way forward in the framework of this particular project. The discussions were also oriented towards broadening and improving public awareness on this issue along with national and international stakeholders.
UNESCO says it is committed to participate actively in the implementation of the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015, adopted at the World Conference on Disaster Reduction held in Kobe, Japan, in January 2005. The most relevant natural hazards risks for Albania include seismology, floods and fires. Based on existing knowledge, the project aims at assisting Albania in improving its capacity to prepare to seismologic risk and to mitigate possible effects on its Cultural Heritage, as elements of a more general strategy to reduce the impact of climate change effects as well as to reduce man induced effects causing natural disasters.
