Promoting Environmental Protection Through the Management of Shared Natural Resources Between Albania and Montenegro: The Shkodra Lake Watershed

Abstract

The world’s watersheds are under an increasing pressure. Environmental security is an important topic which concerns nowadays the quality life of the communities all over the world. It becomes more thematic with respect to natural resources protection and more over freshwater ecosystems shared between bordered countries.

This article evaluates the existing freshwater concerns of Shkodra/Skadar Lake ecosystem as well as the environmental security concern of the local population living in both sides. In fact, there are untreated sewage waters, untreated industrial pollutions and pesticides that are provoking low security of the environment and the water quality of the Lake watershed. This paper offers a model of cooperation in the cross-border context, recommendations for future treating measures toward water quality which can provide environmental security and improving the bio-life quality for Shkodra/Skadar lake ecosystem. Through this paper we argue that ecosystem-oriented principles are essential to shape effective freshwater using priorities as they involve along a continuum from dialogue and partnership, to sharing of information, to more defined frameworks of cooperation at a trans-boundary level, to binding legal norms.

The process we experienced provides also the instruments and mechanisms established at the trans-boundary level and the implementation process mainly focused on the best practices to mitigate environmental problems, institutional strengthening and capacity building running throughout the programme “Promoting Environmental Protection toward Management of Shared Natural Resources between Albania and Montenegro”. It counts also on the adoption of environmental legislation with respect to international regulation implementation and related strategies (AKM/NEA 1999).