Veliaj cheated about the orbital forest

2024-04-11 20:14:00, Aktualitet CNA

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A World Bank report on the state of the economies of the Western Balkans has finally debunked the thesis of green Tirana and 2 million trees, exposing it as one of the biggest public frauds.

According to the World Bank, in the last 7 years, Tirana has not only not become greener, but on the contrary, there has been a reduction in green surfaces.

"Major cities in the region, such as Belgrade, Skopje, Sarajevo and Prishtina witnessed an increase in green area between 2015 and 2020, while Tirana, Tetova and Prizren experienced declines in green cover," the report says.

The World Bank refers to data from Dynamic World, a partnership between Google and the World Resources Institute, which measures in real time with maximum resolution the change of green surfaces in 5 thousand cities of the world. ( Click for measurements ).

According to the Bank, the reason why some cities in the region have become less green is related to change

"The change in green covers can be related to changes in land use, but also to changes in CO2 concentration. This is because climate change brings an increase in stress factors that damage the resistance of vegetation, destroying forests and ecosystems," the report continues.

Veliaj cheated about the orbital forest

Orbital forest in bin

On March 26 of last year, the Mayor of Tirana, Erion Veliaj, announced to the media the planting of the 1 millionth tree in Tirana, calling this an event of special importance for the capital.

"We have counted every tree planted. It is enough to look at the trees that have opened the first buds, to understand that that battle and sacrifice was worth it. In 2015, we said that we would plant 2 million trees by 2030, and we are only halfway through this extraordinary mission," said Veliaj.

But the 1 million trees that the municipality says it planted in Tirana did not turn out to have made Tirana greener. On the contrary, the Albanian capital today is, according to the World Bank, easily more devoid of greenery than in 2015.

This has two reasons. Either more than 1 million trees were cut during this time, or the City Hall figure is not true. In any case, the orbital forest and the propaganda of Tirana, which is greener today, now ended up in the trash. From the World Bank./ Kapitali.al