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Degradation of the landscape of the national park, as justice amnesties illegal quarries on Mount Tomorri

2023-02-17 22:12:53Investigim SHKRUAR NGA ARTA ÇANO
Degradation of the landscape of the national park, as justice amnesties illegal
The stone slabs that are quarried in Mount Tomorri

Alma Spathara, the head of a tourist guide business, is forced to avoid the southeastern part of Mount Tomorri, as she does not like showing tourists the slopes eroded by quarrying activity.

"We avoid it because it looks like an atomic bomb went off," she said.

"Only when it is covered with snow, we take the tourists who want to see the teke from that side, through the highway," added Spathara, who during the rest of the year chooses the northern Tomorri wild nature trail that passes through Qafë-Dardha.

The ascent by road to Mount Tomorri takes about 1 hour. At the height of 1100 meters, on both sides of the winding road, the eroded slopes of the mountain and the piles of stones left behind appear.

The monotonous view of the quarried surface continues for a few minutes of driving. The area that the residents call "Rrasat e Novaj", which is located near the "Trail of Abaz Ali" - one of the stations of the pilgrims who visit the "holy mountain", is all dug up and damaged.

On the third Wednesday in January, the weather was overcast and there were no workers or cars in the quarries, but the tracks of the wheels were distinct.

The entire destroyed area has been included in the Tomorri Mountain National Park since September 2019. As such, quarrying activity is prohibited there, but despite the efforts of the Regional Administration of Protected Areas of the Berat District, the activity has not completely stopped either. why, as sources from AdZM say, it does not develop at the former rates.

AdZM Berat has repeatedly reported persons caught extracting or transporting limestone slabs. However, the data from the Prosecutor's Office and the Court of Berat show that none of them have been convicted so far for the crime of "damaging Habitats in Protected Areas".

In most cases, the Prosecutor's Office has decided to suspend or not start the cases, because according to them, no criminal offenses have been found. As an argument, prosecutors bring the law that provides for a criminal offense in cases of severe damage to the habitat, which according to environmental experts has not happened.

They estimate that the captured quantities cannot cause serious damage, even more so in a completely damaged area. For the punishment of the perpetrators, only administrative measures remain, but from the information gathered, it results that in the period 2019-2022 for the activity of extracting stone slabs in Tomorr, only one fine was imposed for an entity that operated in the Novaj area.

In addition to the prohibition of exploitative activity, inclusion in the national park also provides for the drafting of a management plan for the expanded area, but the National Agency of Protected Areas, AKZM, has informed BIRN that the outline of this plan has not been approved by the minister.

No rehabilitative measures have been taken in this area of ​​the Tomorri National Park. More than three years after the decision, AKZM told BIRN through a written answer that this surface will be in focus to be rehabilitated "in the future".

Unprotected area of ​​Tomorri

The war between the environmental institutions and the stone quarries in the mountain of Tomorri still continues, although legally it should have ended. Some previous battles have had winners sometimes one side and sometimes the other.

Mali i Tomorri was declared a national park in 1996 and was subsequently expanded in 2012, 2019 and 2022, reaching from 4 thousand hectares to 27,158.5 hectares.

The added surface is part of the area of ​​traditional use, where the second degree of protection applies. Based on the law "On protected areas", the use of land with intensive technology and ways that cause damage to biodiversity, ecosystems, or the extraction of minerals or stones are not allowed in them.

According to AKZM, the expansion decision is based on a detailed analysis, taking into consideration the values ​​of this park - part of the EMERALD network (Areas of special interest for the Protection of Europe). The "Mali i Tomorrit" National Park, according to AKZM, stands out for its extraordinary diversity of flora and fauna, with 22 important floristic species, 5 of which are under international protection and 18 endemic species.

The first attempt to include in the national park the surface damaged by twenty years of quarry activity was made in 2018, when the Council of Ministers decided to expand the park by 1383 hectares. The decision was opposed by the 13 mining entities that operated with regular exploitation and environmental permits, despite the fact that some of them happened to work outside the area where they were allowed.

The Administrative Court of Appeal decided on July 15, 2019, to annul the 2018 VKM, citing among the reasons that the Ministry of Environment and the Council of Ministers had not conducted consultations with the community of the area, private owners and interest groups.

The former Minister of the Environment, Blendi Klosi, called the decision unfair and said that the judges would face the "vetting". Two months after the annulment of the decision by the court, the government decided for the second time, in September 2019, to expand Tomorri Park by 1383 hectares.

The Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy, in December of that year, revoked mining permits for all private entities that were engaged in mining activity in Mount Tomori. There were 7 such with active permits left, because the other 6 had not been renewed. Meanwhile, three of these subjects, during the battles with the institutions, managed to obtain protection or as it is known in legal terms "lawsuit insurance", blocking further movements of public bodies. Of the five judges on the panel that overturned the 2018 VKM, only one of the members passed the vetting, while another resigned without facing the process.

However, the activity of stone extraction in the protected area of ​​Tomorri Park continues, leaving the institutions powerless to completely stop this activity.

"During the period 2019-2021, some subjects committed illegal actions by entering the territory of the park to extract tiles", announces AKZM, according to which during the monitoring of AdZM Berat from September 2019 to October 2022, a total of 76 minutes were kept monitoring.

According to the law, AdZM Berat, which performs the functions of the Park's administration, has only a controlling role. She refers the violations to the police, continuing with reports to the prosecutor's office.

In the last three years, 55 reports have been made about quarries in the district of Berat, but in most cases, the prosecutor's office decides to suspend or not initiate cases for the criminal offense of "Damaging habitats in environmentally protected areas". Under these conditions, the possibility of punishing the perpetrators remains the administrative measures that the Territory Protection Inspectorate or the Regional Environmental Agency has the right to take, but the users of Tomorri mountain have not been punished by them either.

ARM Berat told BIRN that in the period 2019-2022, a fine was imposed by ISHMPUT for an entity that extracted tiles in Tomorr and two administrative measures were taken, without specifying what type, against two entities that were engaged in the activity of extracting minerals , sand and clay in this mountain.

While the National Inspectorate of Territory Protection and the regional one have replied to BIRN that during the inspections carried out in Malin e Tomorri, no violations have been found in recent years.

It did not turn out like this for the AdZM of Berat, which during this period notified the police several times, but the IKMT justifies itself that "in the absence of requests for cooperation, there was no work order for inspection in order to evidence the use without criteria and in illegally in the mountain of Tomorri".

The Directorate of the Environment of IKMT and the regional directorate of this inspectorate, which has carried out 25 inspections in the period 2020-22, have told BIRN that "there are no quarries that exercise activity on the mountain of Tomorri, as Tomorri is a protected area" and that "this area is blocked by the state police for exercising the activity".

Meanwhile, the cases filed in the Prosecutor's Office of Berat show the opposite.

The prosecution dismisses the cases

The Prosecutor's Office at the Berat Court of First Instance has informed BIRN that over the past 3 years, 55 reports have been referred regarding quarry entities operating in this district, 33 of which, until the summer of 2022, were still under investigation.

The criminal offense "Damage to habitats in protected environmental areas" was one of the main charges for which these subjects were investigated, together with the offense "Concealment of income", "Non-payment of taxes and duties", or "Illegal employment".

Degradation of the landscape of the national park, as justice amnesties illegal
The stone slabs that are quarried in Mount Tomorri

From the files that BIRN has provided on the basis of the law "On the right to information", it is noted that in most cases it is about cars loaded with stone slabs - characteristic of the Tomorri National Park, stopped near the quarries, or going down through mountain roads in the morning, evening or at night.

Detained persons, in most cases, say that they found the tiles on the side of the road and took them for personal purposes, such as paving the backyard or fixing the roof of the house. While the owners of the entities whose excavators were found near the quarries, when their activity was prohibited by law, justified that the tools were left there because they were broken and they were waiting for the replacement part from outside.

Out of 19 cases of reports for "Damage of habitats in protected environmental areas" for which the Prosecutor's Office of Berat had come out with a decision, at the time of receiving the information, only in 2 cases the case has been sent to court. The court of Berat has not yet issued a decision on these issues.

As for the other cases, in 10 cases the prosecutors have decided to close the case for this criminal offense and in 7 others not to start its investigation.

According to them, in the reviewed cases there were no elements of the criminal offense "Damage to habitats in environmentally protected areas".

In article 202/b of the Criminal Code, which provides for this criminal offense, it is determined that "actions that violate the requirements of the legislation in force for protected areas or the permits and authorizations issued by the competent bodies are punished with a fine or imprisonment of up to 5 years" cause serious damage to a habitat located within an environmental protection zone".

But in the technical expert report prepared by the environmental engineers, during the investigations, it is estimated that the actions of the citizens in the investigation "did not lead to serious deterioration of the habitat" of the protected area, or the impact on the environment was "negligible", taking considering that "this area is a degraded habitat".

The volume of plates loaded in the cars of the detainees was 1, 5 or 7 cubic meters, but in any case, this amount was considered insufficient to constitute a criminal offense.

However, even when the prosecutor estimated that the decision should be sent to the Regional Environment Agency, since the offense may be subject to administrative offenses, as we learn from the ARM's answers, no administrative measures were taken either. Thus, subjects or individuals continue to receive stone slabs from the Tomorri Mountain National Park, escaping measures of any kind.

Meanwhile, the technicians state in the act-expertise that although the concrete impact is negligible, "continuity in the future, even if in fragments or small, modest surfaces, like the one treated in this act would constitute a frightening, degrading and repairable multiplier ...".

AKZM informs that the area where there are quarries for the extraction of decorative limestone tiles in Novaj is an area that serves as a passageway for wild animals, especially it is a habitat for the mountain partridge and the wild rabbit, so it is necessary, according to her, rehabilitation as soon as possible to enable the right peace.

But the same AKZM admits, in a telephone conversation, that there are no funds to rehabilitate it and the entire part included in the Tomorri National Park in 2019 remains destroyed.

This situation favors the continuation of the illegal activity of stone extraction and damages the biodiversity, ecosystem and tourism in Berat. "It not only worries us, but it is scandalous. It is very painful that it is in that state," concludes the tour operator, Alma Spathara.


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