Governance of Buna delta in Albania

In the frame of the overarching project “Governance and stakeholders participation in coastal wetlands management”, the pilot site workshops on Buna Delta Protected Landscape (BDPL) were organised in Albania, on 12  and 13 February 2019. The first day, the meeting took place at the premises of the Regional Agency for Protected Areas (RAPA) in Shkodra and was attended by 15 participants, including representatives of RAPA and the Municipality of Shkodra, the Institute for Nature Conservation in Albania (INCA), PAP/RAC and its project partners (IUCN, GWP Med), and local experts on governance issues. The objective was to discuss issues related to governance in the pilot area so to assess the needs and gaps currently faced in the area, as well as to discuss the future options for better governance, including the establishment of a Management Committee which is under progress. The following day, the workshop was held at INCA premises in Tirana with participation of INCA staff and its experts, as well as a National Agency for Protected Areas (NAPA) representative. The purpose was to discuss the draft answers provided by INCA to the questionnaire on needs assessment for the governance in BDPL. A very rich discussion was developed and lots of information and proposals were gathered that will be used also to illustrate the Handbook on governance, which is the main output of the project. The last session was dedicated to training/capacity building on “Governance” presented by Mr. B. Shipman, the lead expert on this project activity. The project is financed by the MAVA Foundation.