On a sunny Thursday, April 30, environmental activist Taulant Bino was near the picturesque Hidrovori beach bordering the Narta lagoon north of the village of Zvërnec, when he saw a line of heavy trucks loaded with inert materials and a group of workers surrounding the protected area.
Some excavators were leveling the ground between the pine trees.
Bino started photographing the trucks, but some workers asked him to stop on the pretext that he had entered the perimeter.
"I asked those who were there, engineers or workers in hard hats. From informal conversations, they let me know that it was about Kushner's project and they were building the camp for the workers," Bino told BIRN.
Concerned about the works within one of Albania’s most important ecosystems, the Pishë Poro – Nartë protected landscape, Bino searched in vain for an information board about the project, but could not find one. The area enjoys legal protection and constitutes a unique habitat for many waterfowl and wildlife, being a key point for the preservation of biodiversity in Albania.
Even representatives of the Administration of Protected Areas in Vlora, AdZM, had no information about the works. When they inspected the site on Saturday, May 2, AdZM employees asked for the construction permit document, but received from the company representatives a letter from the Territorial Development Agency, AZHT.
The document is not a work permit, but a correspondence between the AZHT and the company "Zvërnec South Adriatic Development", where the latter is informed that the National Territorial Council had approved on April 29 a construction permit for the carrying out of preparatory works for the fence.
But the AZT also announced that the KKT decision had not yet been initialed by the relevant authorities, as the process of reviewing and fulfilling the conditions had not been completed.
The company "Zvërnec South Adriatic Development" has received two development permits for the construction of a massive tourist resort in Zvërnec in January and April 2025 from the National Territorial Council led by Prime Minister Edi Rama, but the permits have not yet been disclosed.
The development permits are related to the project presented by the US President's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, in the spring of 2024, but the company that has obtained the permits in the KKT has unknown ownership.
Two environmental organizations, AOS and PPNEA, denounced the works in the protected area, comparing them to "a massacre."
“The unidentified brigade of excavators and heavy tracked vehicles continue the destruction of the Protected Landscape,” PPNEA stated in a post on its Facebook page.
The responsible local and central authorities were contradictory and unclear in their responses to BIRN regarding the intervention in the protected area without the construction permit yet being issued. The Prime Minister's Office and the Ministry of Environment did not respond by the time of publication of this article, while the company "Zvërnec South Adriatic Development" was unavailable for comment.
Plans to transform the Pishë Poro-Nartë wetland ecosystem into a construction site for luxury resorts began in 2021, when the Council of Ministers downgraded the protection status from “managed nature reserve” to “protected landscape.” The government also decided to shrink the surface area of this ecosystem by over 5,000 hectares.
In 2024, Jared Kushner caused quite a stir when he announced to the American media, Bloomberg, his plans to invest in luxury resorts in Sazan and Zvërnec in Albania. According to initial plans, around 10,000 tourist accommodation units were to be built in the Zvërnec area along a green strip of land that separates the Narta lagoon from the Adriatic Sea.
The company "Zvërnec South Adriatic Development" was founded in August 2024 and within 8 months received from the National Territorial Council two development permits for tourist resorts in Zvërnec, which had not yet been disclosed by the beginning of March.
“Zvërnec South Adriatic Development” is owned by the offshore company “Dutch Trust Management BV” registered in the Netherlands. According to documents submitted to the NCC, this company is also linked through a group of shell companies to the Sazan project and the two Qatari investor brothers, Ramez and Mohamad Al-Khayyat.
Following the development permits, the company "Zvërnec South Adriatic Development" received on April 29, according to an AZT document available to BIRN, a permit to carry out fencing and preparatory works in order to build access roads within the property.
However, AZHT informed the company that the permit in question was still awaiting signature by the responsible institutions.
An employee of the Protected Areas Administration told BIRN on condition of anonymity that they had been unable to interpret the legal meaning of the document presented to them during the inspection conducted on May 2, so they sought clarification from the central office in Tirana.
"They didn't give us documents, but they gave us a permit from the AZT, which we were legally unable to interpret and we sent to the center," he said.
He said that they made a decision to suspend the works, but company representatives responded that further communication would be made with Tirana.
"We went on Saturday and made a decision to suspend the works," he said, but added that the heavy equipment is there and that AdZM is monitoring them with guards.
On May 6, environmental activists documented the continuation of heavy equipment work in Pishe Poro to establish a construction site.
At the mercy of chains
Parakalimi i karvanit të kamionëve të mbushur me interte që po i drejtoheshin bregut në fund të prillit u prit me shqetësim edhe nga banorët e Zvërnecit. Njëri prej tyre i tha BIRN se kishte parë që kamionët shoqëroheshin nga “një delegacion makinash luksoze”.
“Pashë nja 8 dalika (kamionë në greqisht) të mbushur me çakull dhe pastaj erdhi një si delegacion me makina,” tha ai në kushtet e anonimatit, pasi e konsideroi çështjen si “punë me spec”.
Ai shpjegoi më tej se kamionët ndaluan në rrugën që lidh manastirin e Zvërnecit me bregdetin dhe dy prej tyre u shkarkuan në rrugë.
“Na thanë që po bënin rrugën, por s’e kuptoj çfarë është kjo,” shtoi ai, duke pohuar se i ishte dukur si shfaqje fakti që makinat e rënda u larguan menjëherë pas makinave luksoze, ku ai dyshonte se kishte zyrtarë.
Kosta Xhaho, përfaqësues i organizatës mjedisore PPNEA në Vlorë, i tha BIRN se zona ku po punohet u dogj para dy vitesh. Ai shtoi më tej se për ta rehabilituar kishin mbjellë 600 rrënjë pishe.
Në një reagim zyrtar, PPNEA akuzon autoritetet se kanë braktisur territorin “që duhet të mbrojnë, duke e lënë në mëshirën e zinxhirëve dhe zhavorrit që po zëvendëson vegjetacionin”.
“Zona më e rëndësishme për jetën e egër në Pishë Poro-Nartë po grabitet në mënyrë banditeske, pa asnjë njoftim,” deklaroi PPNEA.
Në të njëjtën linjë reagoi edhe organizata tjetër mjedisore, AOS e drejtuar nga Bino.
“Ata janë këtu dhe këtë herë me buldozerë…,” deklaroi AOS.
“Plani i Jared Kushner nuk është më një render thjesht i shpëlarë, sepse punimet në zonën e Hidrovorit kanë nisur dhe parashikojnë mbi 20,000 njësi akomoduese dhe më shumë se 10,000 vizitorë në ditë, pikërisht në një nga zonat më të ndjeshme ku takohen 3 Zona të Mbrojtura,” shtoi AOS.
Reagime kontradiktore
Autoritetet lokale dhe ato qendrore janë kontradiktore dhe nuk dinë të thonë nëse punimet në zonën e mbrojtur Pishë Poro – Nartë kanë nisur me apo pa leje. Kryetarja e Bashkisë së Vlorës, Bruna Mersini i tha BIRN se punimet në zonë po kryheshin me leje nga AZHT.
“Është kompania që ka projektin në Zvërnec që po bën rrethim kantieri. Kanë leje nga AZHT,” tha Mersini. Kur iu bë me dije se leja nuk lëshohet nga AZHT, por nga KKTU, kryebashkiakja Mersini na referoi te institucioni qendror.
“Nuk e di, nuk jam në dijeni, duhet të pyesni AZHT dhe KKT për këtë, por ata po bëjnë rrethim kantieri aty dhe kanë paraqitur dokument nga AZHT,” tha Mersini.
Nga ana tjetër, Afrim Qëndro, drejtori i Inspektoratit Kombëtar të Mbrojtjes së Territorit, IKMT, tha se punimet në zonë nuk ishin kompetencë e institucionit që ai drejton. Qëndro tha se po punohej për hapjen e një rruge ekzistuese dhe përgjegjësia binte vetëm mbi Administratën e Zonave të Mbrojtura.
“Nuk është në kompetencat tona. Nuk kemi informacion për fillim punimesh. Ato që janë, janë pjesë e zgjerimit të rrugës. Hapja e rrugës në zonë të mbrojtur është përgjegjësi e AdZM”, tha ai përmes telefonit.
Qendro even said that he had spoken to the mayor of Mersini about this case. But when he learned that Mersini had confirmed the works for the construction of a construction site, Qendro changed his position.
"I will bring the inspectors tomorrow morning to verify what the mayor told you," he declared./BIRN
