Albania to Toughen Environmental Crime Penalties

The minister said Albania had already “consolidated legal framework on the environment, but criminal sentences for those who break the law should be increased.

“The current measures are not enough,” he told an international conference on the environment held in Tirana.

Naco noted that environmental crime was becoming increasingly transnational and “regional cooperation was necessary to combat it”.

Naco’s announcement follows a decision of the environment ministry to impose a two-year moratorium on hunting, amid worrying reports that fauna and flora are being decimated.

According to the ministry, independent studies and data collected by the department of biodiversity show that over the past decade Albania’s wildlife population has declined sharply.

In a recent statement, the Minister of Environment, Lefter Koka, said that there had been a decline of between 30 to 50 per cent in species that may be hunted, such as wild rabbits, foxes and mountain quail, but also in the populations of species that are protected.

The minister blamed illegal hunting, the large number of registered hunting riffles and the government’s inability to collect fines.