++ Albanian conservationist Ardian Koçi has received the EuroNatur Award 2025 ++ Profound commitment as head of Divjakë-Karavasta National Park – until being forced out of office ++ Nature conservation in Albania is currently under pressure ++
Ardian Koçi (centre) receives this year’s EuroNatur Award, partly because he has shown backbone. The award was handed over by Dr Anna-Katharina Wöbse, Vice president of EuroNatur, and Gabriel Schwaderer, Executive Director of EuroNatur.
© Gerald Jarausch
“This award is a great honour for me personally – but also for everyone in Albania who is committed to protecting nature and the environment,” said Ardian Koçi in his speech on Mainau Island.
© Gerald Jarausch
Flying Dalmatian pelican over the Karavasta Lagoon: this rare species of pelican has its only breeding ground in Albania here. Ardian Koçi achieved a great deal for the protection of these giant birds during his time as director of the national park.
© Klajdi DuroRadolfzell, Island of Mainau. Albanian conservationist Ardian Koçi has been handed over the EuroNatur Award today, Thursday, 16 October 2025. He has received it for “his great personal commitment to protect Divjakë-Karavasta National Park and for his integrity, putting up with professional as well as private disadvantages,” according to EuroNatur Executive Director Gabriel Schwaderer.
Ardian Koçi, a licensed veterinary surgeon, accepted an appointment from the new Albanian government in 2013 as director of the Divjaka-Karavasta National Park for which he gave up his well-paid job in Italy.
In his laudatory speech, Gabriel Schwaderer highlighted the integrity of this year’s laureate: “Ardian Koçi has taken his work as a trustee for nature seriously and has selflessly championed its protection. His uncompromising, clear-cut position rubbed others up the wrong way, on the local as well as national level.”
Koçi’s consistent enforcement of the hunting ban in Albania was a thorn in the side of numerous hunters and poachers; his courageous opposition against plans to build large-scale tourism facilities within Divjakë-Karavasta National Park also caused discontent among the government in Tirana. Finally, in 2023, Ardian Koçi was virtually forced to resign. He himself puts it this way: “I was more afraid of losing my passion for the job than losing the job itself.”
Ardian Koçi would like to see the EuroNatur Award as representing all committed Albanian conservationists: “This honour does not belong to me alone. It is dedicated to all those who – sometimes at great personal sacrifice – stand up for the forests, wetlands and wildlife which are part of our natural heritage.”
Background information:
• The EuroNatur Award is unendowed. It honours outstanding achievements in nature conservation. Previous recipients include author Jonathan Franzen, the ‘brave women of Kruščica’ and the municipality of Mals in South Tyrol. The EuroNatur Award 2025 was bestowed on Thursday, 16 October 2025, at 5 p.m. on the island of Mainau in Lake Constance.
• Divjakë-Karavasta National Park is considered one of the most species-rich of Albania’s protected areas. Amongst others, it is home to the breeding grounds of the only Albanian colony of endangered Dalmatian pelicans. That Karavasta Lagoon is still brimming with so much life is largely due to one man: Ardian Koçi. In his time as national park director, his commitment to protect the park was exemplary, making it one of the best-managed nature reserves in the country. Investment plans which do not respect protected areas are now threatening the national park – as well as quite a few other natural treasures in Albania.
Inquiries: Christian Stielow, e-mail: christian.stielow(at)euronatur.org, tel.: +49 7732 927215
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