The end-of-year celebrations in Albania are a happy festivity of out nation, as the cities decorate their centers and streets with various shiny lights, trees and other objects. In Shkodra this Christmas a street exhibition called ‘’Environmental Crime’’ was set up by volunteers of the Ecomind movement.
The youth installed the Christmas tree at the center of Shkodra made up of plastic bottles gathered from the streets of Shkodra, the lake and the Bojana river. The message sought to be transmitted is the need of ecological and environmental preservation that can be reached only if we work together.
‘’This installation with recyclable bottles has a purpose to raise awareness among people about the environmental pollution. These bottles are gathered by us from all the mission we have carried out, and made the tree to show the nature preservation,’’ said Ecomind director, Mirsad Basha.
Basha said that the most polluted areas are the rivers, as cities and villages nearby have turned them into garbage cans. The areas near naval estuaries are also quite polluted which negatively affects nature and tourism.
The estuary of Bojana river doesn’t only pollute the Albanian maritime, but it also polluted the Montenegrin part of the sea, which Basha said it creates institutional issues. Regardless of the legislation concerning the environmental protection, nature somehow still continues to be contaminated in most parts of the country.
The exhibition of ‘’Environmental Crime’’ by the students of the Fine Arts Faculty was attending by the OSCE ambassador Bernd Borchardt. The ambassador said that garbage dumping in the environment or sewage, the forest exploitation and burning, as well as riverbeds damages, are some of the environmental crimes in Albania that still go uncondemned by the government.
‘’These are visible and serious problems for which are done very limited criminal prosecutions. Last year [2017] only 32 cases related to environmental crime have faced the court. That is why it is important to raise awareness about issue related to the mutual nature and environment,’’ said ambassador Borchardt during the exhibition.
Ecomind said that in the years to come the environmental preservation will be one of the most crucial issues for the Albanian society and governance. For that reason it is important that the society will be aware of nature’s significance, and work together to safeguard it.
According to Basha all the bottles that make up the tree are found in the most beautiful and attractive parts of the lake, river and seashore. The message is pretty clear that attention and care should be paid, otherwise the ecological system might be harmed, and both lake might be ridded of fish and the forests harmed from the plastics.
Lobbying and awareness campaigns are to be paid attention from the non-governmental organizations both towards civic society to educate them about nature preservation, but also towards institutions to profess the legislation.
The institutions in the past few years have positively acted in combating the forest exploitation and hunting. However, the environmental crime is still present as hydropower dams on the rivers are still being constructed, and due to lack of garbage disposal deposits in urban areas, or their disposal in the rivers.
