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Experts call for measures against climate change

2024-08-14 20:05:00, Aktualitet CNA

The fires are continuing in several areas in Albania, increasing the damage this year, especially in the forest massifs and in the economies of tree-growers. Two planes from Romania for extinguishing fires joined the efforts of the Albanian firefighting forces today as part of the European civil protection service. Environmental specialists say that this year is accompanied by major consequences from climate change, which require sustainable investments from both local governments and the central government.

In Albania, the fires in some regions of the country are causing damage to the forest massifs but also to the economies of the residents, especially in vineyards and areas with olives.

After the control of the fires in the area of ??Gjirokastra, Finiq and Mount Tomori in the south of Albania, the other focus where the fires have been going on for nine days is the one in the National Park of Prespa, in the southeast.

The Albanian Ministry of Defense announced on Wednesday the arrival of two firefighting planes from Romania, one of which has a capacity of 6 tons of water to help the Albanian firefighting forces. The planes are part of the assistance of the European civil protection service.

"This is one of the most problematic years for fires," says Gligor Dushi, forest engineer in the Dropulli area of ??Gjriokastër, which was massively affected by fires this year.

"Due to the prolonged drought, extremely high temperatures and dry biomass that are mostly located in our mountains recently, all the factors came together and presented a great risk for fires. In the municipality of Dropull we had on the 8 In July, a large fire continued for several days, covering about 4,270 hectares of forests and pastures, of which 510 hectares are only forests. The environmental damage is considerable," he says.

Mr. Dushi says that fortunately the fires have not caused damage to people or homes, but their management has become even more difficult. According to him, climate change is playing a basic role for the fire situation combined with local factors.

"Due to the abandonment of animal husbandry by many residents, the pastures in our mountains are unconsumed. Since the grass grows and is a burning mass, the possibility of fires also increases in our mountains. At the same time, there are also climate changes. We have since May without falling rain. Temperatures are very high, we have record temperatures in Dropull these days, which keep coming and going", he says.

The situation of fires aggravates the situation of biodiversity and the ecosystem in Albania, says the professor of natural sciences at the University of Gjirokastra, Lavdi Hasani.

"Air pollution and the greenhouse effect is very evident because the main massifs that are burning today are pine forests that contain resin and resin, of course, has strong carbon components that not only pollutes the air, increases smog in the air, but on the other hand it greatly affects the greenhouse effect," he says.

Mr. Hasani further says that the effects of the global climate will become even more aggressive and require sustainable investments from both the local governments and the central government. It's time, says Mr. Hasani, to invest in improving firefighting capacities.

"Actually, the time has come for all governments to think more about this because we also have advanced countries, members of the European Union, that are being put in difficulty by the fires and are also asking for help from the EU in such cases. They are also losing people's lives from such situations and it is not at all excessive that for the time and what we expect from global warming we can say that today it is very necessary for governments to take measures to increase the high-tech fleet for extinguishing fires", says he.

While Mr. Dushi says that in many areas the departure of emigrating residents has caused a problem for human resources needed for interventions from fires. According to him, new methods of action must be designed.

"The lack of people is crucial for extinguishing fires. Fires are controlled and extinguished by having a large amount of volunteers, firefighters do not only extinguish the fire, they play their main role in the organization of the operation. A measure that must be taken in the future is to find ways to put out the fires because we do not have the human capacity to intervene. Vehicles often come from the air, but it should be known that these interventions must be accompanied by human capacities from the ground."

Albania is considered one of the countries with the highest risk in Europe from natural disasters, and on the other hand, it has very small capacities to adapt to the consequences of climate change.

The regional report on Climate and Development in the Western Balkan Countries published in June of this year by the World Bank states that Albania needs an amount of 6 billion dollars in the following years to mitigate the impacts of climate change./ VOA