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| Pelicans in Karavasta Lagoon, May 2022 |
In the Karavasta Lagoon, protected area specialists and teams of environmental volunteers started recording winter waterfowl early in the morning.
In about 30 wetlands of the country, this is the thirtieth year when Albania is involved in this process that is carried out every year in more than 144 countries and over 25 thousand different water habitats, says the well-known Albanian ornithologist Taulant Bino.
"Many teams have been distributed in 30 main wetlands of Albania and the main goal is to count the waterfowl present in these wetlands. This is the thirtieth anniversary of bird counting in Albania. It started in 1993 with a small Dutch and Albanian team and then the Albanian specialists took the initiative and it is carried out continuously".
The director of the Divjakë-Karavasta National Park Ardian Koçi says that the data is very important to see the changes in the environment and the situation of the wetlands.
"All the data we get from the count converges in an international center and based on the data and comparison with previous years it is concluded how environmental changes have affected different populations of wintering waterfowl."
Albanian wetlands generally continue to preserve a natural character that is rare in other countries of the world, since in European countries most are artificial wetlands. Albania has this advantage because some of the rivers are still untouched by human hands and create branches and floods, creating new wetlands, says Mr. Bino. He also talks about the problems in the Albanian wetlands.
"A part of the Albanian wetlands has major problems such as human disturbance, the approach of urbanization near the distribution centers of the wild world as well as other pollution problems. Here we are in an agricultural area. Certainly organic and inorganic substances are used in agriculture, pesticides which contribute to the deterioration of the water quality of our lagoons".
Regarding the situation of bird populations this year, the director of the Divjakë-Karavasta Park, Ardian Koçi, says that it is different and should be seen in the complex.
"We have had ups and downs, the situation should be looked at more complexly. Until two or three days ago, which we have continuously monitored, the situation in the Divjakë-Karavasta Park, where we are also focused on today as the largest wetland in Albania, seems to have a satisfactory number of wintering waterfowl."