Environmental research

The Karaburuni peninsula has been used traditionally winter pasture. The mild climate that is due to the warm and moist air masses of maritime origin creates suitable conditions for plants to grow. Twice the year animals and people undertake the seasonal migration known as transhumance. Small shepherd communities settle in remote areas in the so called stans for about 6 months. The life in these places has changed very little. Electricity is absent. Diesel generators apart from being bulky and costly to run are a serious fire hazard. Several times fires have started due to malfunctioning engines. The relationship between the shepherds and the park staff is at the present strained due to alleged involvement of some of the shepherds in application of fires. On the other side the shepherds claim that the rent that they pay to the park authority is misused. SGP believes that conservation goals can not be achieved without first establishing an atmosphere of trust among the main stakeholders and that conservation measures should be accompanied by some form of support or subsidy. This project will install 15 portable small powered photovoltaic systems in the communities. The system is going to be using high efficiency LED lamps that operate at 12 volt in order to reduce the cost of the system and a battery. The service time for the PV panels is typically about 20 years and it needs very little maintenance.

Albania