The Albanian government has joined the EU in supporting UNESCO’s project aimed at the sustainable development of the Lake Ohrid region, a transboundary region in Albania and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
Two-thirds of Lake Ohrid is inscribed as a World Heritage site on the Macedonian side of the lake. The protection of this site would be further reinforced by extending World Heritage status to the remaining third of Lake Ohrid, which is located in Albania. This is why the project supports efforts by the national authorities to prepare a nomination file for the extension of the World Heritage property.
The Albanian Minister of Environment Lefter Koka and UNESCO’s Director-General Irina Bokova signed an agreement confirming Albanian financial support of EUR 170,000 for the project “Towards strengthened governance of the shared transboundary natural and cultural heritage of the Lake Ohrid region” for a period of three years. Besides supporting the preparation of a nomination file for this extension, the Lake Ohrid region project also covers the reinforcement of transboundary cooperation, profiling of the transboundary area and its sustainable tourism opportunities and the implementation of a waste awareness campaign. The European Union contribution is provided in the framework of the EU assistance to pre-accession countries in the field of Environment and Climate Change and amounts to 1.7 million EUR.
More information about this Pilot Project for the Lake Ohrid region can be found at: http://whc.unesco.org/en/lake-ohrid-region/
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