Bio-diversity

Most Mediterranean countries regard themselves as ruined landscapes, "degraded" through thousands of years of misuse of the land, which might be "restored" to the forests supposed to have existed in an idealized past. The forestry dogma of the last 50 years has been: prevent fires and restrict access of goats into the forests and pastures . In many cases forbidding fire and banning goats antagonizes shepherds and others for whom goat keeping and occupational burning has been part of their livelihood. At the same time preventing controlled burning and banning goats from grazing the lower forest creates with time the premises of bigger and destructive fires. This project is not for promoting the burning of pastures, instead it is a project that demonstrates how a solution can be reached through a series of interventions as part of a practical and realistic management plan. The project will consist in measures for improving productivity and plant community in pastureland in the Karaburuni peninsula by using organic manure that is naturally accumulated in the traditional animal enclosures. The project will also try to restock the pasture with seeds of more nutritious and palatable plants from the same area as well as will provide fodder from areas outside the park as compensation.

Albania