On 2 February 2021, the Institute for Environmental Policy (IEP) launched an awareness raising campaign on protecting Karavasta Lagoon from the human direct impact, and the impact of climate crisis. IEP chose three tools to convey the message to the general public:
1. “Climate bike”, which biked across the main parts of Tirana, to raise awareness on the importance of wetlands for biodiversity and people, and climate crisis is affecting wetlands and indirectly agriculture and livelihoods of people. We also aimed at changing the public’s perception of wetlands, which has been given a bad connotation by the former communist regime, by portraying wetlands as a harmful habitat, a place for breeding mosquitos and other unwanted animals, like frogs. The loss of the majority of Albania’s wetlands brought a decrease of biodiversity, loss of resilience towards climate crisis impacts, and decrease of water availability. These were the main messages conveyed during the whole 2 February to the general public in Tirana.
2. Excursion at the Karavasta Lagoon and wetland complex, and at the Shkumbini River estuary, where a video and a set of pictures were taken. The pictures and video were broadcasted on 2 February 2021, aiming at showing the effects of climate crisis and human activity on the lagoon and wetland complex, and on biodiversity.
3. Broadcast for 15 minutes on Tirana 2 Radio, where the head of IEP, Endri Haxhiraj, raised the awareness of the public on the importance to protect our wetlands and lagoons, and why they are in danger from the climate crisis impacts, and what each Albanian can do to protect them.
This activity was supported by MedWet, the Mediterreanean Wetlands Initiative.
Video from the Karavasta Lagoon and wetland complex
