Act4Drin NGO Alliance launched on the occasion of World Wetlands Day 2016
Today, on World Wetlands Day, 13 NGOs from the five Drin riparians join forces to form the Act4Drin Alliance aiming to protect and conserve freshwater ecosystems in the Drin River Basin. The Act4Drin Alliance is a coalition of NGOs aiming to act as a forum for coordinating and strengthening NGO participation in the upcoming policy developments in the region driven by the Drin MoU implementation process, enhancing cooperation and networking among and between regional, national and grassroot NGOs in the Drin Basin working on sustainable water resources management and freshwater biodiversity...
Read MoreContinuous violation of the Hunting Moratorium in Albania
The Association for the Protection and Preservation of the Natural Environment in Albania (PPNEA) and the Albanian Society for the Protection of Birds and Mammals (ASPBM) raise the issue for the continuous and escalating violations of the hunting moratorium which has become evident during the last months. The field monitoring groups/teams of these organizations and their network members in different regions of the country have inspected and proved an intensification of the illegal hunting cases, especially during the period November 2015-January 2016. The two year hunting ban in Albania...
Read MoreAct4Drin at the kick-off of two large-scale projects aiming to promote joint management of the Drin River Basin
On the 16th of December 2015 more than 120 stakeholders from the Drin riparians were brought together in Tirana at the inception meeting of two large-scale GEF projects aiming to promote the joint management of the Drin River Basin. The two projects focus on enabling transboundary cooperation and integrated water resources management in the extended Drin River Basin and are expected to contribute substantially to the implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding agreed by the Ministers of the Drin riparians in 2011 and the Action Programme decided in 2013 identifying actions to address...
Read MoreJoint NGO efforts advocating sustainable water management practices to conserve environmental flow in Ohrid lake
The Institute for Environmental Policy jointly with Grashnica, two environmental NGOs from Albania and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, respectively, have recently published a position paper advocating sustainable water management practices to conserve environmental flow in Ohrid lake. With this position paper, the NGOs contribute their alternative ideas to address the challenges of water resources management in lake Ohrid, mainly stemming from a lack of awareness of best practices applied elsewhere. Specifically, they call for the application of technologies and practices which...
Read MoreAnnouncing the CEPF Mediterranean Basin Storymap
BirdLife International launches new Storymap for the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) investment in the Mediterranean Basin Biodiversity Hotspot. Stretching from Cape Verde to eastern Turkey, the Mediterranean Basin Biodiversity Hotspot is identified as one of the world's 35 biodiversity hotspots, earth’s most biologically rich – yet threatened – areas. The Mediterranean Basin is also special because of its cultural diversity and deep historical and cultural richness – necessitating a local approach to conservation so that it benefits both people and...
Read MoreAct4Drin showcased at the MedPartnership and ClimVar projects closing event
The MedPartnership and ClimVar projects held their final meeting on 3-4 November 2015 in Athens, Greece to showcase the results achieved through more than 150 activities and 80 demonstration projects implemented over the past five years or so aiming to address the main environmental challenges that Mediterranean marine and coastal ecosystems face. Some indicative results include savings of over 10 million cubic meters of water annually in several industrial sectors; the establishment of 7 new Marine Protected Areas; new maps of coastal aquifers; proper disposal of over 900 tons of PCBs in 3...
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