The forest moratorium in Albania has not stopped deforestation. National and international reports, satellite imagery, and field research are worrying.
"Don't go there because the bear will eat you." This is the "advice" given to us by the four men we meet in the center of the village of Lekbibaj, in Tropoja. Our final destination is Vrana e Madhe, where about two years ago some residents denounced the indiscriminate cutting of forests in their village. In the environmental massacre that has occurred with Albanian forests in the last three decades, Tropoja is one of the areas where beech trees still remain, of great value to those involved in wood processing.
"They are the only means of survival, in an area that offers no employment opportunities and from which most have emigrated," the residents hasten to explain.
On the way to Lekbibaj we encountered trucks loaded with large-diameter tree trunks, wood that, according to forest engineers, is most suitable for processing furniture or other wood products. Meanwhile, in Vranë e Madhe, the paths opened by trucks and the fresh or old traces of massive logging cannot be hidden.
Almost the same situation is in the southeast of the country. In Polis-Guri i Zi-Valamar, near Pogradec, in the surrounding villages, such as Bishnica, the higher you climb, the more bare the mountains become.
Bledi Hoxha, a biologist with the environmental organization PPNEA, has been working in the area for years. "In the field, we see trucks coming here to cut down the last remaining valuable trees. There have been cases where we have encountered people carrying out illegal activities, who often block the road while they load all the logs," he says.
Abuses even by licensed firms
Despite the fact that Albania has legally adopted a forest moratorium since 2016, which prohibits the cutting of forests for commercial purposes until 2026 and only allows the use of forests for firewood, for families and public institutions such as schools and kindergartens, on the ground - in the areas of Lezha, Librazhd, Shkodra and almost throughout the country, you can find numerous sawmills, which in most cases are not even registered as businesses and operate in complete informality.
But even those who are licensed by institutions to cut firewood abuse it.
"They load their trucks with the highest quality beech, the first quality. And the most terrible thing is that the plots for which they have permission to cut are not touched, while the plots with the highest quality wood are massively cut down. No rules are followed. They cut what they like, what works for them," says Ahmet Mehmeti, an experienced forestry engineer, who a few weeks before the moratorium began, was attacked in the field along with other colleagues and a team of journalists, while they were reporting on the forest massacre in Stravaj, Librazhd.
Responsibility starts with local government
In the clash two years ago between residents of the Vrana e Madhe area and the Tropoja municipality, locals claimed that their forest, where mainly beech trees are found, was being cut down without criteria, using the license for cutting firewood.
According to Albanian law, local government is the authority that manages and controls activities in the forest fund, which includes forest exploitation.
"We have sporadic cases of illegal logging, but we cannot say that it is a widespread phenomenon," says Pjetër Imeraj, administrator of the Lekbibaj commune. He responds to our interest in knowing more about how the licensing of companies that have the right to cut firewood works.
"As a municipality, we present to the municipality of Tropoja the needs of the area for firewood during the winter season. We do not determine who comes and waits," says Imeraj. When asked whether the licensed companies are from the area or come from Tirana, he answers in a low voice: "from Tirana" without mentioning the name of the company or going into further details.
Through an official request we addressed to the Tropoja Municipality regarding the residents' claim, it responded by saying that "The Tropoja Municipality does not license any firewood company, but the process is done through tendering". According to the official response, the volume of wood used for the period 2020-2024 was 8489 m3 and that beech is among the types of wood that were cut.
Tenders with only one participant
Regarding the contract signed with the winning company of the tender, "Alxhef shpk", the municipality recommended that we base ourselves on the contract published on the Public Procurement website. On this website, what stands out is the fact that in cases where the company entered the tender competition in the Municipality of Tropoja, there was no other competing company in the competition.
According to economic experts, tenders with only one participant are always a red flag.
"In the years 2022-2023, we were selected to supply firewood to schools and institutions under the municipality of Tropoja. We have implemented everything stipulated in the contract and have only cut down fallen and dry trees. I declare with full responsibility that we have not cut or transported timber beyond what we were contracted for by the municipality of Tropoja," says Xhafer Fiora, owner of the company.
According to data from the National Business Center, the company "Alxhef Shpk" has been operating on the market for about 20 years, registered as a business for the processing of wood materials, the import-export of timber and the production of furniture. "We are not specialized in the production of furniture" - declares Fiora. He adds that before 2016 there were no contracts for the use of forests. But according to another registration in the National Business Center, Fiora turns out to be the previous administrator of the company "Fjora", registered in 1995 and with a business object for construction and other services, and in 2009 with a changed business object, that of forest use, trading, production and import-export of all types of wood raw materials.
European and American market
The main client to whom "Alxhef shpk" has been transporting timber for over 10 years is "Minelli Spa", part of the "Minelli Group", an Italian company established in 1937, which produces various types of wood products but is particularly known for its luxurious wooden gun cases and holsters, products which are sold in the European market and are also exported to the American market.
Their business relationship began in 2012, a collaboration which, according to the company "Minelli Spa", began because the low cost of labor in Albania was more competitive than other countries in the region.
The company says it was not aware of the accusations of residents in Tropoja two years ago, and that the moratorium has not changed the dynamics of cooperation with "Alxhef shpk".
"We know that Alxjef imports from Montenegro and Kosovo, because we have the necessary materials that we need for the registration of EUTR 995/2010. Later, Alxjef also started to be supplied from Greece," says Marcello Minelli, a representative of the company.
"Alxhef shpk" also says that it imports from countries such as Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo and Greece and that it supplies "Minelli Spa" mainly with brush handles of various sizes and the rest with beech wood pellets.
Italy the main destination
According to official data from the Institute of Statistics, wood and wood products are a stable item of Albanian exports. According to these data, which refer to the time period 2012-2023, the trend of exported wood has suffered a slight decrease but mainly for charcoal-wood. Over the years, Italy remains the country where Albania sends the largest number of wood and paper products for export, according to INSTAT.
According to OEC, an online database of economic activities that compiles data from around the world, Albania has a long history of exports to Italy in the post-transition period, starting in 1995. According to published data, in 2015, a year before the moratorium came into effect, Albania exported wood and wood products with a market value of around 21 million euros, with 71.7% of the total exported quantity going to Italy. The largest share was occupied by charcoal, furniture wood and sawn wood.
Italy remains the leading country in wood exports until 2023, where after the moratorium came into effect, a decrease in the amount of charcoal exported was observed, but the amount of sawn wood and technical wood remained almost the same.
The General Directorate of Customs did not make available any data regarding imports and exports of the last 10 years, including customs codes for the type of wood exported.
Italian negligence in implementing European legislation
The European Union Timber Regulation, EUTR, came into force in 2013 to combat illegal logging of timber and its by-products. The introduction of the EUTR in theory means that illegal timber is banned from entering the EU market. Ten years later, in 2023, the EU adopted another regulation, this time called the EU Deforestation Regulation, EUDR, which has started to be implemented on the ground.
The EUTR provides that any quantity of wood, produced in the EU or imported into the EU, must be accompanied by extensive documentation, including the origin of the wood, i.e. its source and type.
EUTR/EUDR experts in Italy say that the regulations have more moral force than legal force.
Davide Pettenella, professor of forest economics at the University of Padua and former consultant to the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) in the Balkans, says that "Albania is a unique case, because it is the only country under the moratorium and a significant part of the forests, especially those with the greatest value, are public property, traditionally managed through management plans". This combination, according to him, "favors the spread of corruption cases".
According to him, the EUDR would not stop illegal activity in the case of Albania, because the system works when it comes to traceable and legal wood, but in a network of corruption, which starts from illegal logging, controls at customs points, in measurements, sales and exports, are almost impossible.
Meanwhile, sources from the Italian forest police admit that they operate mainly through documentation checks and go out into the field for random checks every two years.
A confidential source, for years in the construction sector, says that "the wood comes to Italy with documentation where the origin of the wood is falsified. "It enters here with Bulgarian or Greek documents or from other Western Balkan countries and is treated as an imported good within Europe.
"In my opinion, in Italy they have no information, they don't ask or they don't care, because they only need to buy wood and produce parquet and furniture with it."
The statements given by the source under conditions of anonymity could not be proven during this research, also due to the refusal to provide official information by local and central authorities in Albania and Italy.
The Albanian moratorium is not enough
"In the last 20 years, Albania has lost approximately 33% of its woody biomass," says Abdulla Diku, a forestry engineer who has been studying the situation in Albanian forests in the field for years. According to him, the peak of the environmental massacre in the country's forests occurred in 2011, but it is still ongoing.
"In the past, we had 80 million cubic meters of forest volume, while now we have about 53-54 million m3, as a result of illegal logging and fires," emphasizes engineer Diku, referring to official data from institutions.
Even for "Global Forest Watch", an international structure that monitors forests around the world, Albania is considered one of the most problematic countries in terms of the loss of forest areas as a result of illegal logging and fires. The latest GFW report shows that in the last 20 years "Albania has lost 6.5% of the total area covered by forests".
Problems with the management of the forest moratorium are also highlighted in the European Union's 2024 report on Albania's progress in reforms undertaken as part of the accession process.
"The insufficient implementation of laws on deforestation remains worrying. Despite the forest moratorium, the situation continues to remain uncontrolled," the announcement states.
Last year alone, within the framework of the funds provided to countries in the process towards EU membership, the latter gave Albania a fund of 67.35 million euros to be used in many areas, such as the fight against corruption, local governance, forest protection and many others that are considered of particular importance.
EU: Albania, far from renewable energy
However, in the Environment Chapter, the European Union continues to have dissatisfaction with Albania. The European ambition of decarbonization - to leave behind energy produced from fossil fuels and to produce only clean energy through wind and solar energy sources - seems to be far from the situation in Albania.
Forests have the natural power to absorb carbon dioxide through photosynthesis and store it in trees, soil, and other parts of the ecosystem, accomplishing what is known as carbon sequestration. Deforestation does not help the process.
"The level of emission reductions planned for the period 2021-2030 in the National Energy and Climate Plan was not updated in 2024. This plan relies fundamentally on carbon sequestration from forests, but has very limited measures and tools to protect and manage forests," the report states./ REL (A2 Televizion)
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