Grigels Muçollari: Vulnerable areas and the Mongols

2024-03-11 18:32:00, Opinione Grigels Muçollari

Grigels Muçollari

What is the first thought that comes to your mind when you hear the word Mongolian?

I have come across the streets on quite a few occasions. Used as an insult to someone's background or intellect. Maybe because it's a place far away from us. Perhaps it has a derogatory sound, much like "Chechen" or "Zimbabwe", words thrown out of the mouth carelessly to insult someone different in appearance, dialect or behavior. Curious about this "spot" of the road, I started reading about Mongolia.

Besides the rich history of conquests and invasions, the Mongols are known for the oldest biosphere reserve in the world. It is called Bogd Khan Uul and is located south of the country's capital.

In 1778, the Mongolian government took the decision to protect this area, to have it untouched by the long hand of greed. In that year, Albania had not yet become a state. But, today that it is a state, and a candidate state for the EU, Albania revises the law on protected areas, after an official request of 12 deputies of the governing party.

The Assembly approves the agreement on immigrants and the law on protected areas
February 22, 10:24

I will not give the biography of the 12 MPs, because they will probably say that I start from the position of a political opponent, but I can't keep my mouth shut if I don't at least express my surprise that all 12 MPs, who together have not spoken for 12 minutes about their constituencies, woke up alarmed and asked the government to change the law on the protected areas of Albania.

I will not dwell on proper names, as it does not matter to me whether the legislator is called Anduel or Edona, Bujar or not; it doesn't even matter if this or that MP has an area protected by law in his/her constituency.

I judge the haste, the ways and the scheme of organization that will remove a protected area from Albania to give it "for protection" to a builder, a hotelier or any business. To justify this coordinated movement, the justification comes ready from the center of Tirana: "We will allow the development of private property".

The EU "slaps" the government for "Protected Areas"/ "Make transparency"
February 22, 11:46

Public opinion is deafened by this phrase. The mayor of Tirana uses it sparingly whenever he wants to protect the indefensible, the towering old town in the historical center of Tirana, once protected by law as "Historical Monumental Ensemble".

The law was repealed and multi-story concrete buildings were erected next to the Clock Tower and the centuries-old mosque of Et'hem Bey. The Theater had the same fate, and the signs are that the Museum is also on that trajectory. This too in the name of development.

Reasonable suspicion leads me to think that this model is being imported from the Municipality of Tirana towards the edges of the country, where the archeological identity area and the health of mother nature are endangered by the greed to shoot them in the same hands that concreted the ancient Durrës , Vlora and its enviable coast.

Amendments to the Protected Areas Law/Denunciation: Rama receives 30% for each permit he signs
February 22, 19:15

Mongolia is a long way away, so let's compare ourselves to a good neighbor, to whom the government of Rama is offering Gjadri as a refuge. Italy has 843 terrestrial and marine protected areas for a protected area of ??over 3 million hectares, equal to 10.5% of the country's surface. That is, our neighbors in 10.5% of their territory cannot pluck a flower.

The law on protected areas "waits for" the hand. It happens that inside a protected area there is a private property, just as it happens that the entire protected area had or has an owner, because there is no land without a master. The owner enjoys no attribute to alienate or "develop" his property, since the government has prioritized nature and landscape over man.

The Law on Protected Areas/ Spahiu: Why it endangers cultural heritage
February 23, 20:05

The United Nations Conference COP15 in 2022 expressed the necessity that by 2030, 30% of the Earth's surface should be a protected area. They called it the 30x30 objective. In our Albania for 2030, the party of all powers holds congresses of glory.

The Prime Minister sets a target for his party to extend its time in power until 2030, planning that by then it will have controlled the country to 100% of its extent. No one could have imagined that the former communists of Albania would come out with slogans like "Develop private property". In the West they would laugh. It would be a gem of political satire.

Environmental organizations demand a meeting with the President/ the Law on Protected Areas to be returned to Parliament
March 5, 17:54

The rush to the protected areas, after finishing with the unprotected ones, is the way of the end of Albania. Since the establishment of the Albanian state, the passage of protected areas under the supervision of the KKT, is a discourse of killing nature, concealing its beauty, tearing it apart for individual interests.

Albania and Albanians benefit nothing from this amended law. Tourism does not benefit, nor do curious foreigners, who have heard of Vjosa, Butrinti and Karaburun. Wildlife, native vegetation and migratory birds do not benefit either. Only some bipedal creatures with two pockets instead of lungs benefit. They are not barbarians, nor are they Chechens, Russians, Serbs, Greeks or Mongols. They are Albanians, therefore only Albanians can show them the country.