The Vjosa Narta Conservation Area in Albania is a natural paradise that has become rare in Europe. There, on the Adriatic Sea, 150 kilometers south of the capital Tirana, there are important resting and breeding grounds for more than 60 bird species, especially flamingos and the rare Dalmatian pelicans. And here, of all places, Albania’s government has been building Vlora International Airport since November 2021, which could mean the end of bird populations. For the Euronatur Foundation and the Bund Naturschutz (BN) Bayern, this is both scandal and madness, as they made clear in a press conference on Wednesday. From her point of view, the participation of the Munich airport company FMG, which acts as a consultant through its subsidiary Munich Airport International (MAI), is particularly explosive.
The conservationists are demanding that FMG stop this activity immediately. “It is unacceptable that a state and municipal company is involved in one of the greatest destructions of nature,” says Bavaria’s BN chairman Richard Mergner. Shareholders of Munich Airport are 51 percent from the Free State, 26 percent from the Federal Government and 23 percent from the City of Munich.
The Munich-based company has acted as a consultant on airport operations for many years. More than 50 airports all over the world are already customers. Mergner believes that the participation of an otherwise internationally renowned Munich company is now providing the Albanian government with the argument that everything is going right with the construction of Vlora Airport. The local as well as the Albanian nature conservation organizations regard the project as most likely illegal. Local conservationists are already taking legal action against the airport construction, and the European Commission and the EU Parliament are also calling for a freeze on construction. The project violates national laws and international agreements such as the Bern Convention for European Species Protection.
The area between the Vjosa River and the Narta Lagoon has been protected since 2004. For the construction of the airport, however, the government moved the boundaries of the protected area without further ado. The Vjosa is one of the last large and undeveloped wild rivers in Europe. It flows into the Adriatic Sea here on a largely untouched stretch of coast. The 42 square kilometer wetland plays a central role in bird migration along the Adriatic coast.
Collisions with large birds could also be a risk for airplanes
According to Euronatur Managing Director Gabriel Schwaderer, it is not only the drainage of at least 400 hectares of wetland that is a problem, but above all the operation of the airport. Because the trajectories of birds and planes cross in a dangerous way, possible collisions with large birds are not only a risk for the animals, but also for the machines.
The Mabetex Group based in Lugano, Switzerland, is the client, probably also the future operator of Vlora Airport and FMG’s customer. FMG states that it has no influence whatsoever on the planning and location of the new airport. There are also no contracts with the Albanian government. This is also reported by the Bavarian Ministry of Finance, whose boss Albert Füracker chairs the FMG Supervisory Board. In the event of proven legal violations in connection with the approval of Vlora Airport, the FMG Group has reserved “appropriate options for reacting”, the ministry said.
The Greens in the Munich City Council nevertheless applied on Wednesday to end the cooperation. Euronatur and BN are still hoping for a construction freeze, for example by the EU declaring this a prerequisite for Albania’s EU accession.