How a scheme to boost economic development in Albania’s mountainous north could end up enriching a few, harming the environment and angering its neighbours
There are few true mountain wildernesses left in Europe. In Switzerland, Austria, France and Italy tunnels have been bored through solid rock to connect railways and roads through the Alps. Once-remote landscapes have become more accessible. But the process has generally been slow – spread out over many decades, allowing for change which now feels organic rather than forced.
The Albanian Alps are an awe-inspiring range of soaring peaks along the Albanian and Montenegrin border, long considered of marginal economic value but now viewed as a source of tourism income. According to an article from the Center for Investigative Journalism of Montenegro (CIN-CG), change may be coming quickly, disruptively and controversially.
For much of the last century, the border was a stark political dividing line, even as the ecosystems on both sides remained fundamentally interlinked. Now, as the Albanian government seeks to develop the area – with a 2025 law called the “mountain package” at the centre of it – difficult questions naturally arise: should it be developed at all; by whom; for whom; and with what consequences, on both sides of the border?
Kristijan Gura, a 27-year-old café owner, thought the law would benefit people like him, by effectively legalising past construction on land passed down from generation to generation without established legal title. Instead, a photo shows him in front of buildings bulldozed after the law was passed, as part of an enforcement action against illegal construction. He’s now left with a €100,000 loan, and nothing to show for it.
What’s going on? The article suggests the law – sold as helping existing residents to get legal title for land, sometimes by paying a symbolic €1 fee to purchase state land – is rapidly turning into something else: a bait and switch. Small-scale local development may end up being replaced by large-scale development decided upon, not locally, but in the capital. Article 8 of the mountain package law allows for once “untouchable” public lands to be swallowed up in private development projects.
The word “agroturizam” is used frequently in the article – denoting things like farm-stays, or restaurants and cafés linked to small agricultural holdings. The vast bulk of applications made by locals to benefit from the law’s provisions fall under this rubric. (There are other categories: including livestock farming, and solar and wind farms).
In fact, the law is steering things towards bigger, more capital-intensive projects. Tourism expert Ardiola Alikaj warns that these may provide employment, but most benefits will flow to investors. “Agritourism is used as a legitimate narrative of state policy,” professor Doriana Musai explains, “but the real result is intensive tourism disconnected from the local social and economic structure.”
The change from small-scale to large matters environmentally, too, given the region’s ecological diversity and fragility.
The Albanian Alps contain some 1,500 plant species, 40 per cent of which are endemic. There’s a huge variety of trees (beech, Molika pine – also known as Macedonian pine – and alders are amongst those mentioned). The list goes on: 155 types of bird, 60 types of animals, some protected under EU law.
This picture of richness and diversity is matched on the Montenegrin side. “Last year,” the article notes, “hidden cameras recorded lynx, amongst the most endangered animals in the Balkans.”
CIN-CG raises concerns of a further worrying shift: a requirement to collect copious socio-economic, environmental and other data before a project is approved has been, in practice, massively watered down. “Subsequent legislation usually becomes more detailed”, Professor Erjon Muharemaj notes: “The opposite happened here.”
Albania’s neighbours are looking on in concern. “We have absolutely no information,” the mayor of the Montenegrin town Gusinje tells CIN-CG. This may end up having wider political ramifications. Albania is seeking to join the EU; if it doesn’t follow EU rules, might that bid become unstuck? Marija Lekić, representative of a Montenegrin bird protection NGO, notes that under the Espoo Convention, Albania is required to notify neighbours of developments with possible trans-boundary impacts.
“Podgorica [the capital of Montenegro] must react,” says one local activist.
The original article ‘“Planinski paket” – dogovor od jednog eura koji prijeti nacionalnim parkovima Balkana’, by Ola Mitre, Aida Ciro, Kristi Bašmili and Nemanja Živaljević was first published in Montenegrin in CIN-CG on February 24, 2026.
It is available here.
The Center for Investigative Journalism of Montenegro is a foundation dedicated to public interest investigations in Montenegro, and part of the Global Investigative Journalism Network.
Summary by CEM