Minister of Environment: 20% of forests destroyed in eight years

19/01/2016 00:00

The Ministry of Environment has approved 2676 forest exploitation permits from 2005 to 2013.

The Minister of Environment, Lefter Koka, underlined that only the ban can stop this massacre that has cost us 20% of our green spaces in eight years.

“More than 2600 permits in eight days means at least three permits a day, nine of them in private forests”, said the Minister of Environment.

Koka said that his ministry has given no permit in the Kolonja District, but he added that more than 80% of the forests have turned into private property. “That was the first case when a private property had a permit to exploit 15% of it”, Koka said.

“The construction permits of 435 hydropower plants, for dozens of mines and limestone kilns, were not signing any agreement with the Ministry of Environment. We have traveled at every corner of Albania to rehabilitate what they damaged”, Koka said.

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