Vjosa/Kumbaro Visitor Center: Dedicated spaces for researchers and visitors, we rehabilitate the effects of past activities!
Minister of Tourism and Environment Mirela Kumbaro visited the construction site for the Multifunctional Center and Information Stations for the “Vjosa River” National Park in Tepelena and Përmet. This project is the product of an international competition, while its concept utilizes the use of local materials and a fusion of visitor centers within the landscape concept.
While familiarizing herself with the work in the field, Minister Kumbaro announced that with the approval of the national park management plan, interventions will be made to rehabilitate several problems in the Vjosa area.
"We are here to follow the works of a large construction site that will have three locations. The largest center is also the natural museum, there will also be environmental education facilities, but also service facilities for tourists and visitors, while there will also be facilities available for researchers, along with the laboratory and administration facilities. They will be located here. Part of this project is also related to the integrated waste management project. A little further on there was an unpleasant waste disposal site of the Tepelena municipality which will be completely relocated and integrated into the rest of the waste management project to make room here for a space of about 3,500 square meters at the service of visitors, administration, tourists and researchers, environmental experts, especially those in love with the Vjosa who have contributed in various positions in the last 10 years, until today when it is a National Park. With the approval of the national management plan for the River National Park "Vjosa, we will also have interventions for the rehabilitation of several points that are a legacy of a past where industrial activities that are currently in a passive stage will have a gradual rehabilitation plan together with the center of Vjosa."
During her speech, the minister emphasized that there are no new activities in Vjosa that impact the park, but work has begun on rehabilitation that protects the last wild river in Europe from the effects of past human activities.
"The Vjosa has been here for centuries and has coexisted with the interventions of human activities, be it traditional ones such as agriculture, livestock and fishing, but also with other activities such as the use of inerts, such as oil deposits in the Fier areas, or water sources. All of these are part of the history of the Vjosa. And the reason why we declared it a national park, after a very long time and the sensitization of forces, was to give a new future to the Vjosa Valley as the last wild river in Europe. Therefore, all history has been stopped, previous contracts for various HPPs have been blocked and canceled. This is the reason why this year the implementation of several major projects has begun in parallel, such as the integrated waste management plan in the entire Gjirokastra region, the project we have with the World Bank for the treatment of polluted waters in the Vjosa. Likewise, we are working closely with the National Environment Agency and Albpetrol on another rehabilitation project "territory that has nothing to do with Vjosa, but also affects Vjosa, such as old oil deposits, because there are no new oil extraction activities there, which in one way or another also impact our park. Declaring a National Park is not only about will and decision-making, but it has very large responsibilities and costs, which requires blocking some economic activities, but also a great education for the residents."
Minister Kumbaro then visited the second station of the visitor center being built in Përmet, where part of the project also envisages the revitalization of the city's stone shelter, a natural and cultural monument, making it an integral part of the project that will serve as a natural museum. There, Minister Kumbaro also met with the staff of the Vjosa River National Park Administration Office, while the third center of this project will be built in Vlora.
The Vjosa River National Park, which also includes the three tributaries Drino, Bënçë and Shushicë, covers an area of 12,727 hectares, on a river line of 480 kilometers in four regions of the country. For this reason, by Decision of the Council of Ministers, a dedicated Office for the Administration of the Vjosa National Park has been established, while the management plan has also entered into force.
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