Since its establishment in December 2014, EcoAlbania has implemented a campaign for the protection of the Vjosa River, which aims to raise public awareness of the ecological values of the Vjosa River, and protect it from plans to build HPPs.
Thanks to the experience of the last 8 years, EcoAlbania comes with the project “Vjosa Campaign – an inspiration for activism in Albania – Eco Albania” to share this experience with national and regional NGOs as one of the main actors in undertaking and directing nature protection campaigns. As part of the project, tour of forums was launched in neighboring countries, with which cooperation can be very strong on environmental issues that affect both sides.
The first forum took place on April 29, 2022 in Tirana at the Heinrich Böll Foundation. There where 12 participants from civil society organizations, a mix between activists, young people who aim to increase their knowledge and people who have invested years in environmental protection and biodiversity.
During the meeting was discussed about the campaign “Save the blue earth of Europe” – The case of Vjosa, explaining the steps taken by the group of partner organizations in this campaign. Olsi Nika, CEO of EcoAlbania gave a full overview of the challenges and successes of the campaign focusing in particular on media relations and the legal battle. With the participants were also shared 2 practical manuals: “Legal tools to set up a litigation strategy” and “Techniques to raise awareness through the media”, to come to their aid during their campaigns.
At the end of the activity, an open discussion was held in the form of a conversation during which questions and suggestions were made on how we can all improve together in the initiative to protect nature.
The next meetings will be organized in Montenegro, Kosovo, Northern Macedonia and Greece starting from Montenegro on May 2, 2022.
