Project launched on Lake Ohrid’s sustainable development

TIRANA, Sept. 16 – A three-year EU-funded project worth $2.64 million has been launched to support the efforts of the Albanian and Macedonian governments to sustainably develop the fragile Lake Ohrid region shared between the two neighbouring countries.
The project “Towards strengthened governance of the shared transboundary natural and cultural heritage of the Lake Ohrid Region” kicked off this week with an inception workshop in the south-eastern lake town of Pogradec.
“Lake Ohrid is one of the oldest lakes in the world, embracing numerous exceptional natural and cultural features. The region’s striving for balancing conservation with sustainable development is reflected in the bilateral Agreement for the Protection and Sustainable Development of Lake Ohrid and its Watershed ratified in 2005,” says the UNESCO Office in Venice, the Regional Bureau for Science and Culture in Europe.
The project is designed to address the main threats affecting the natural and cultural heritage of the Lake Ohrid region. It is aimed at strengthening transboundary cooperation over the region’s cultural and natural heritage, helping recognize and profile the trans-boundary area by assessing its values and sustainable development opportunities, improving capacities for the effective management of natural and cultural heritage, supporting integrated management planning based on active cross-sectorial cooperation and public participation. It will have a particular focus on building lasting cross-sectoral cooperation, especially in the fields of sustainable tourism development, and awareness-raising for natural and cultural heritage protection and on the importance of appropriate waste management.
The project also aims to support the efforts of the national authorities in the framework of the World Heritage Upstream process to explore innovative approaches for the preparation of nomination files, and in particular for the extension to Albania of the World Heritage property “Natural and Cultural Heritage of the Ohrid Region”, already recognized in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1979.
The project will be carried by UNESCO in close partnership with the Governments of Albania and Macedonia, as well as the three Advisory Bodies to the World Heritage Convention: ICOMOS International, IUCN and ICCROM.
The Ohrid-Prespa lake region in the Albanian-Macedonian border has recently been named a UNESCO biosphere reserve as a site promoting sustainable development based on local community efforts and sound science. With the new inscriptions, Albania and Macedonia join the World Network of Biosphere Reserves.
The Ohrid-Prespa landscape of the transboundary biosphere reserve is a balanced combination of water bodies, and surrounding mountains bordered by flat areas on its external boundaries. With an area of 446,244 hectares and a population of about 455,000, it includes part of Lake Ohrid and its surroundings in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, which are inscribed on the World Heritage List, as well as part of Lake Orhid in Albania,” says UNESCO about the Ohrid-Prespa Transboundary Reserve shared by Albania and Macedonia.