Ecological corridors for bear, wolf, and lynx

The latest EuroNatur project initiative as part of the Balkan Green Belt is the establishment of a large-scale, cross-border protected area in the mountains along the Albanian-Macedonian border. About 100 lynx still live in the southern Balkan Mountains, especially in the border region between Albania and Macedonia. They are part of Europe's most threatened autochthonous (i.e. indigenous, not introduced) lynx population and may even be represent a separate subspecies of the Eurasian lynx.

For this reason, EuroNatur, together with national NGOs in Albania ("Preservation and Protection of Nature and Environment in Albania" - PPNEA) and Macedonia ("Macedonian Ecological Society" - MES and BioEco) and the Universities of Tirana (Albania) and Skopje (Macedonia), is carrying out a project on the protection and development of the lynx habitats in the southern border area of Jablanica-Shebenik. The protection measures for the Balkan lynx also benefit wolves, bears and the entire ecosystem at the top of whose food webs these large carnivores reside.

A 'green belt' as a relict of decades of isolation

Especially in the Albanian part of the project area new habitats for the lynx must be developed. Unfragmented forests are only found in a few sections of the area. This is due to the prolonged special political position of Albania. Tensions with adjacent countries - the former Yugoslavia to the North and East as well as Greece to the South - and the break-up with the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China, both of which had supported Albania until the end of the 1970s drove Albania into political and economic isolation. Therefore, the country had to be almost completely self-sufficient until the time of its political opening-up in the early 1990s.

Those times have left its mark on the country: many of the formerly dense forests in its mountainous regions were cut down for firewood; in other areas the forest was felled in order to create agricultural land. Rainfall and snow water have caused severe damage to the unprotected soils through erosion.

Today, three factors prevent the regeneration of the Albanian forests: Firewood is still being cut; the areas damaged by erosion have hardly any top-soil left; and additionally the forests are used for grazing livestock. Sheep and especially browsing goats are herded into the forests where they browse on young shoots and thus prevent natural woodland regeneration.

Important refugia 

Only the strictly controlled border area between Albania and the former Yugoslavia and Greece respectively could not be utilized by people on account of the stringent security measures. Today these border regions form a 'green belt' of enchanted nature. The "Balkan Green Belt" is a refuge for rare species of plants and animals and is a very special area in the otherwise heavily utilized Albania.

Jablanica-Shebenik project region

In the Jablanica-Shebenik project region the consequences of Albania's political isolation are very much evident: while the mountains on the Macedonian side (Jablanica) are covered with a dense forest of oak and beech, the Albanian slopes only carry a forest cover in the formerly strictly secured border region or in areas that are not very accessible. Therefore the Balkan lynx finds food and habitats predominantly in the Macedonian part of the project area. In order to ensure the long-term survival of the species it is paramount that the range suited for lynx be enlarged.

Cross-border protection programme

The project focus is on preparatory work for the designation of a cross-border protected area and on the implementation of training courses for local conservationists in the fields of protected area management and lynx monitoring. Together with experts and stakeholder groups from ministries, administration, science, and civil society up-to-date knowledge on the status of the Balkan lynx is being compiled and constituents of a cross-border protection programme for the Balkan lynx are being developed.

The EuroNatur Balkan Green Belt project is financially supported by the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) with funds from the Federal Ministry for the Environment Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU).