Over 53% of the country’s surface is covered with forests and pastures, but the attention towards these natural resources has been low.

Official data show that from 1998 to 2019 the state budget has invested in the maintenance and enlarged the forest fund to an annual average of €1 million.

But human errors and fires have reduced forest areas, since 2015 by about 1000 hectares, while the blaze of the past 3 weeks has aggravated the situation even further. Expert Mihallaq Qirjo predicts the recovery to take at least 50 years.

In the short term, the fund for forest management is expected to increase. The emergency fund will also be larger.

For next year, the government will allocate 1.6 billion Albanian Lek, about 500 million more than this year, but this fund is only implemented during natural disasters.

Experts say that long-term strategies are needed to preserve the environment and biodiversity, as the risk of disasters will be even greater due to Albania’s high chances of experiencing disasters.

A study by the Regional Environmental Center shows that the politicization of the forest service has created a non-professional administration to manage this natural resource.