Albania to benefit from fisheries development project

Albanian fisheries will from January 2001 benefit from a World Bank Project utilizing US$9 million of Japanese money.

The main objectives of the project are to achieve sustainable use of marine resource and increase the household incomes of Albanian fishing communities. The project would also support the government's initiatives to strengthen its capacity in essential public functions such as research, training, and regulation in the fishery sector.

To achieve these objectives, the project aims to carry out the following main activities:

a) Development of regional and national fishermen's associations,

b) Policy and institutional support, and promotion of aquaculture development

In particular, the project would aim to address the following sector issues and facilitate the implementation of the strategy:

• Lack of community-based fishermen’s associations. The project would facilitate the establishment of Regional Fishermen Associations (RFAs) that are able to become partners with Fishery Directorate in developing and enforcing regulations.

• Weak capacity of the Fishery Directorate. The project aimed to strengthen the Fishery Directorate’s capacity to carry out essential public sector mandates;

• Overexploitation of demersal stock. The project would aim to support the preparation of bilateral treaties with neighbouring countries. In addition, the project would also develop various regulations on demersal stocks (spawning area, closure period) in collaboration with RFAs.

• Lack of knowledge and expertise on passive fishing techniques.

• Lack of information on the stock and catch of marine resources. The project would aim to address this issue in a practical and cost-effective way. First, the project would aim to develop a capacity within the RFA to monitor their catch (mainly demersal stocks). Second, RFAs will collect the information on the catch by the set nets and bottom long lines to be provided under the project (mainly demersal stocks on the rocky areas and pelagic stocks)

• Lack of knowledge on modern aquaculture technology. The project would aim to develop two training centre in Kavaje and Lin to provide local fishermen (RFAs) and farmers with modem technologies on aquaculture, and refine these technologies to fit into the Albanian setting, particularly the aquaculture of koran [Ohrid trout – Salmo letnica].

• Inadequate Marketing. The project would aim to help RFAs improving marketing by themselves. In particular, the project would aim to develop small marketing facilities with critical equipment (small cold storage and ice machines) to establish a collection point where fishermen would come and sell their catches.

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