{"id":18694,"date":"2021-08-12T11:16:05","date_gmt":"2021-08-12T09:16:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/?p=18694"},"modified":"2021-08-12T11:17:15","modified_gmt":"2021-08-12T09:17:15","slug":"it-will-take-our-forests-50-years-to-recover-from-the-recent-wildfires-says-expert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/it-will-take-our-forests-50-years-to-recover-from-the-recent-wildfires-says-expert\/","title":{"rendered":"It will take our forests 50 years to recover from recent wildfires, says expert"},"content":{"rendered":"

Environmental expert, Mihallaq Qirjo raised the alarm that the recent fires smoldering parts of northern and southern Albania, pose the risk for long-term effects. According to him, the observation that was specific to this summer\u2019s wildfires was that apart from those fires \u201cbeing a direct consequence of human activity in nature\u201d, there\u2019s also been an indisputable amount of wildfires forming as a result of climate change.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most major consequences are those like damages to the economy and property, but in terms of the natural habitat, we are also losing entire ecosystems. The scorched forests will need around 50 years to regrow because a burnt environment’s biodiversity is practically extinguished. This is why, many years are needed and efforts, in order to revive them,\u201d said Qirjo, environmental experts.<\/p>\n

According to Qirjo, wildfires during the month of August have affected \u201cthe heart of our country\u2019s biodiversity\u201d, including several protected sites like Karaburn in Vlora and \u2018Guri i Nikes\u201d in Pogradec.<\/p>\n

The environmental expert considered the intervention from the air as essential in extinguishing wildfire flames, but unfortunately, our government doesn\u2019t own these types of equipment, rendering our fire-extinguishing capabilities primitive, at best.<\/p>\n

Mentioning the fact that \u201cthe entire Mediterranean is classified as a high-risk area in terms of the impacts of climate change\u201d, Qirjo added that \u201cAlbania is highly exposed to natural catastrophes and that our brittle national economy will have a hard time coping with them\u201d.<\/p>\n

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