There is something deeply revealing in the argument repeated every time another protected area in Albania is handed over to luxury investors: “Albanians never even went there anyway.”
Some said it about Sazan Island when the Albanian government granted preliminary approval for Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, to transform the area into a luxury resort.
Some say it now about the wetlands and protected ecosystems surrounding Narta Lagoon and Divjakë-Karavasta National Park.
As if the only thing that gives nature value is whether humans consume it. This mentality is precisely how we are destroying the planet.
A forest does not need to become a resort to justify its existence. A lagoon does not need beach bars and villas to matter. An island does not need to be “activated” by billionaires to be valuable. Some places should exist simply because they are ecosystems, habitats, migration corridors, and living environments for species that are already on the edge of extinction.
