In Prespa National Park like elsewhere, livestock numbers increased tremendously after the system change in Albania around 1991, when private people were allowed to own livestock. Grazing in forests was intensified. After clear cutting, remaining fodder and branches were taken away and the continuous utilization of regenerating trees led to the situation of partly completely degraded forest areas that can be observed today.
Today it is necessary to establish a socially acceptable scheme that redistributes the grazing pressure from the forest nearby villages into other areas within the park that can sustain harvesting while allowing for regeneration of the damaged areas. The willingness of communities to utilize alpine meadows for grazing during the summer months instead of free grazing inside the forest area and to restrain from grazing along the shoreline would be essential elements of this strategy. Therefore, infrastructure to utilize alpine meadows should be restored (access roads, water reservoirs, shelters).
This project is the first in a series of projects that will help locals restore the infrastructure that will make possible the reutilization of the alpine meadows. It will consist in building of two water reservoirs in the alpine meadow as a demonstration.