Albania Intersectoral Environmental Strategy 2007.

The Intersectoral Strategy of Environment 2007 is a national strategy prepared to implement the citizens’ constitutional right for a healthy and ecological environment and help country’s sustainable development through rational use of natural resources and their preservation from pollution and degradation. The intersectoral strategy is an integral part of the National Strategy for Development and Integration.
To contribute towards sustainable development and make agriculture, forestry and fisheries more productive and sustainable, the strategy has defined the following interventions: Strengthening of law enforcement efforts including the application of ‘polluter pays’ principle; Priority treatment for the activities that cause air pollution in urban zones and water pollution along the coastline (European standards will be adopted, the degraded areas will be neutralized and rehabilitated and in severe cases of hazard exposure, the local populations will be removed); Fighting erosion, as one of the main causes of flooding and grave human and material losses in low elevation areas; Fiscal measures for business investments in clean technologies and energy conservation projects; Establishment of the Environmental Fund funded by taxes, fines, and donations to be exclusively used for clean environmental initiatives; Preventing and eliminating fauna hunting in excess of thresholds set forth by the laws; Doubling the number of protected areas; Public information and awareness through campaigns organized in close collaboration with civil society organizations; Expedited transfer of forestry and pasture resources ownership to the local government units.
To reduce rural poverty the strategy promotes secure tenure, equitable use, and sustainable management of natural resources by users' groups. To this end, the system of land tenure rights will be reformed and ownership over several natural resources such as forestry, pastures, land, and irrigation resources will be transferred to the users’ associations.
To enable more inclusive and efficient agricultural and food systems the interventions will focus on: modernization and diversification of the fishery fleet being able to sustainably manage the domestic and foreign fishery reserves. Further, the port infrastructure will also be improved and enhanced with ships maintenance facilities. New markets of fishing products will be built in the vicinity of fishing ports and main lakes. Also, new fish farms will be established for aquaculture and trout production especially in the north areas of the country. Special attention will also be paid to the improvement of the fish-processing capacities in order to meet the domestic demand as well as export to foreign markets.
Regarding governance, the Ministry of Environment, Forestry, and Water Administration will be primarily responsible for the strategy implementation. Periodic monitoring will be conducted by environmental specialists and the line ministers will report the findings to the Parliamentary Commission for Environment. A special Inter-ministerial Committee for Environment and several working groups will be established to coordinate the strategy implementation. The strategy was approved by government regulation No. 847 date 29 November 2007.