A group of conservation experts from 19 European countries has expressed horror after witnessing large-scale construction directly inside the core zone of the Vjosa-Narta Wetland Protected Area in Albania, described as the last natural river delta in the Mediterranean.
On May 7, experts from BirdLife International and the Albanian NGO Protection and Preservation of Natural Environment in Albania (PPNEA) arrived at the Vjosa river delta to inspect an illegally built airport. Instead, they discovered a massive construction site right in the heart of the reserve. Excavators tore up the beach, trucks dumped gravel and stones, and roads were cut through ancient dunes and pine forests. A drill rig was operating on a hillside. No permits were posted, no company name displayed, no environmental license of any kind.
The Vjosa-Narta area is a sanctuary for over 200 bird species, including flamingos and Dalmatian pelicans, nesting loggerhead sea turtles, and the critically endangered Mediterranean monk seal.
The very next day, May 8, PPNEA sent an alert letter to Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama and the Minister of Environment, also notifying the European Commission, the EU Delegation in Tirana, and the press. Protests took place on May 15, 26, and 30. During the third protest, the area was surrounded by barbed wire and guards behaved brutally toward demonstrators. A video of a man being dragged away went viral on social media.
When media linked the destruction to a $4 billion mega-real estate project backed by Jared Kushner, former U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in-law, and his daughter Ivanka Trump, the scale of the affair quickly drew global attention.
Albanian authorities said the Special Anti-Corruption and Organized Crime Prosecution Office had frozen the assets of the land-owning company behind the Kushner-backed project, part of a widening real-estate fraud investigation.
Now the bulldozers have retreated, the fences have been removed, and the Vjosa-Narta has been reconnected to the sea. However, experts say the flattened dunes, felled forests, and gravel dumped on sand cannot recover on their own. “A tactical retreat, allowing destruction to resume once the cameras are off, is not enough,” BirdLife International stressed in an article. “The damage must be repaired and the future of the area must be secured for this story to truly end.”
