Between breakthrough and backslide: Vjosa Wild River National Park turns three

Three years after Albania’s Vjosa River was declared Europe’s first Wild River National Park, the initial euphoria has given way to unease: the change in Albania’s protected areas law has hollowed out the park’s promised safeguards, threatening to undermine the very achievement once hailed as a global model for river conservation. 

The creation of the Vjosa Wild River National Park in 2023 marked a landmark victory for nature conservation and for civil society throughout Europe. After a decade of dedicated efforts by EuroNatur and its partners in the “Save the Blue Heart of Europe” campaign, Albania committed to protecting the Vjosa as one of the continent’s last free flowing river systems. Once pushed onto the global stage as a role model for international river conservation and crowned with UNESCO recognition as Man and Biosphere Reserve in 2025, the Vjosa has today turned out to be a paper park.

Albania’s amendments to the Law on Protected Areas in February 2024 have stripped away key safeguards, including those meant to anchor the Vjosa Wild River National Park. The changes allow large infrastructure projects, such as hydropower plants, to be carried out inside protected areas if they benefit luxury tourism development. Although the government has pledged to reverse these provisions by the end of 2027 under EU accession benchmarks, this coincides with the close of EU accession negotiations. This leaves a long and risky period during which irreversible ecological damage is likely to occur.
EuroNatur welcomes Albania’s commitment to reversing the damaging amendments to the law, but the pledge comes late. Not only the Vjosa River itself, but also its delta — one of the last unspoilt deltas in the Mediterranean — is under severe pressure. With major development projects already moving ahead  in the Vjosa Delta and along the coast, many of the river ecosystem’s most valuable habitats may not survive until then.  

“As the Vjosa Wild River National Park turns three, the gap between its symbolic power and its on the ground reality is stark. The Vjosa can still become the global model it was once hailed to be, but only if Albania now turns promises into action. Strong legal protections, and the implementation of the park’s management plan ahead of the currently committed timeline are essential,” says EuroNatur’s Head of Freshwater Programme, Annette Spangenberg.

The third anniversary of the Vjosa is a reminder that the euphoria of 2023 will only endure if Albania now moves from promises to real, enforceable protection — so that the Vjosa remains a breakthrough and role model for river conservation worldwide.