The Albanian Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Sustainable Developement and Tourism of Montenegro – our active partners in the GEF Adriatic project – are organising a series of events for World Environment Day.
In Albania, those events will take place on the 5th of June in the Buna River-Velipoja Protected Landscape, an area extremely rich with biodiversity, and will bring together local citizens, schools, NGOs, fishers and scientists. They’ll be gathering to celebrate the recently approved law on maritime activities that will support the sustainable development of a blue economy for the country. The GEF Adriatic project fully supports the initiative.
The special events will include workshops on best practices for developing maritime activities while protecting the environment, as well as on how to grow a sustainable blue economy. There will also be a clean-up action taking place in the Buna River delta.
The event will involve the Ministry of Tourism, the National Agency for Protected Areas and the Faculty of Sciences, fishers’ associations, the Rolling Yacht Molly, floating boat businesses, tourist boats, and a series of environmental protection associations. The aim of the action is to point out the problem of marine waste and its significant negative impact on the quality of sea water, wildlife and human health.
In Montenegro, a waste cleaning action will be organized on the coast, sea and seabed in the Bay of Kotor - Verige, as well as on the beaches from Cape Our Lady to Stoliv. Due to bad weather conditions, the action will take place on Friday the 12th of June.
Partners will include the Agency for Nature and Environment, the Institute of Marine Biology, the Maritime Safety and Port Authority, the private sector and NGOs. The Municipality of Kotor and the Public Company for Management of Marine Assets of Montenegro will provide their support.
With pressure growing on the marine and coastal areas, it has become vital to plan future activities in the Adriatic in a sustainable way. It’s the only way to grow a strong and lasting blue economy in the area.
“The GEF Adriatic project is built in collaboration with policy and scientific institutions, to draft future policies, mobilize funding opportunities, share best practices and launch new initiatives to support a sustainable blue economy. Whatever your role and responsibility, if you’re involved with marine resource management in the Adriatic, we need you – don’t hesitate to contact us!” said Marina Marković, from the project coordination.
