In a marshy stretch of Albania's coastline, where vulnerable species migrate, feed, and rest, environmentalist Xhemal Xherri welcomes visitors to an area where a group of pink flamingos dozes. Amid the prevailing silence, you can hear the lapping waves, the music of the place, which also cradles Dalmatian pelicans and ospreys.
This is the Narta Lagoon, in the delta of the Vjosa River, one of the last free-flowing rivers in Europe, located in the southwest of the small Balkan country.
Xherri advances slowly, interspersing boasts about the beauties of the place with his concern about what he considers the worrying threat that looms over it: a multimillion-dollar investment plan involving the family of Donald Trump, the US president, which contemplates the construction of an ultra-luxury hotel complex.
In January, the Albanian government gave its preliminary approval to accelerate the construction of a part of this resort on an island in the area, which would involve an initial investment of $1.4 billion.
In fact, Albania is a poor country with very high emigration rates due to lack of opportunities. And the government of Edi Rama considers that the expansion of tourism is one of the best solutions to its problems.
However, environmentalists object, considering that it would be to leave a unique natural paradise in the hands of real estate tycoons and politicians without caring about anything other than business.
The environmentalist Xhemal Xherri, from the Association for the Preservation of the Natural Environment of Albania (PPNEA). Just thinking about it infuriates Xherri. "How could the habitat of fragile species coexist with a resort for the super-rich? The destruction it will cause to an area that is everyone's heritage will be enormous," complains this environmentalist and ornithologist, who is also a senior member of the Association for the Preservation of the Natural Environment of Albania (PPNEA), the oldest and largest environmental group in Albania.
Real Estate Appetite
When it all started, it was just a rumor. The information then spread like wildfire in the Balkan country, since the idea is from the billionaire Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, and his wife, Ivanka Trump.
Both claimed to have their sights set on the Vjosa River, approximately 272 kilometers long (of which about 80 are in Greece and the rest flows through Albania to the Adriatic).
Kushner himself has even publicly mentioned his plans on more than one occasion, and Ivanka gave details of the two urban megaprojects on a podcast.
"The first project affects the island of Sazan, an area that currently belongs to the Albanian Ministry of Defense, was used by Italy as a submarine base during World War II and, later, by the USSR for military supplies during the Cold War," Xherri says.
There, in a place that is a paradise for 70 vulnerable species (ospreys, loggerhead turtles, white-headed ducks, pink flamingos and Dalmatian pelicans, among others), the plan is to build ultra-luxury villas with spectacular views of the Mediterranean Sea, as Ivanka Trump explained.
The second project (not yet approved) includes land in the surroundings of the citadel of Zvernec—a town of a few hundred inhabitants where another 1,000 hotel rooms would be built—, which also worries the residents of the area.
In particular, local residents fear that the Rama government may authorize the expropriation of some lands located in the surroundings of the town, since the ownership of these has been in dispute since the time of the Albanian communist regime (1946-1992).
Vera and Vasyl Bibs are two of them. Standing on the porch of their humble home, they don't want to hear about the Trump family's plans. Both are retirees who have spent a lifetime working in Greece to finally retire in the town where they were born.
They say that their lands have been cultivated for generations by local farmers. "We are not against tourism, but these lands belonged to our parents, before our grandparents and now they are ours. They cannot take them from us against our will," they say.
Other Albanian environmental protection associations have also denounced the damage that the project would imply, emphasizing that the Albanian government would have been carrying out the project in an opaque way, without giving clear explanations to the citizens and circumventing local legislation.
"The proof is the law on protected areas that was modified last February at the last minute by Parliament to allow the construction of 5-star complexes," says Mirjam Topi, a researcher at the Agronomy University of Tirana.
"Kushner's announcement practically coincided with this legislative change made by Albania against Albania," he adds.
An Airport, the Antecedent
Both Topi and Xherri highlight another work: the new Vjosë airport, a large structure whose construction is already underway (since 2021) in what was previously a protected natural area, a short distance from where herds of unconscious flamingos can still be seen today plunging into swamps.
"It cannot be a coincidence that they are building such a large airport for transnational flights. These are highly disruptive projects for nature," Topi insists.
Others who openly oppose the airport project (whose construction is not directly linked to the Kushner project, at least as far as is known so far) are the NGO Bird Life, with a presence in 123 countries, and which has even written a letter to Prime Minister Rama to reverse and immediately stop the construction of the infrastructure.
"Not all hope is lost. The local NGOs AOS and PPNEA have filed two lawsuits against their authorities that are still ongoing: one against the construction of the airport and 1 another against the decision to change the boundaries of the protected areas," Bird Life has written.
Olsi Nika, executive director of Eco Albania, is also drastic. "These projects could lead to a total disintegration of the area's ecosystem and the mass extinction of the species that live there," says Nika, adding that, in his opinion, if approved definitively, the Albanian authorities would also be violating some international environmental protection laws that the country has signed.
"The thing is that, right now, it is very possible that tomorrow this will be a reality," adds Topi.
Even so, the Kushner-Trumps would have already obtained strong support. In particular, according to the American press, they would have the support of Richard Grenell, former special envoy to the Balkans during the previous Trump government, and of the businessman Asher Abehsera, an executive with whom Kushner has previously partnered to develop projects in Brooklyn, New York, as revealed by The New York Times.
"The fact that such a renowned American businessman shows interest in investing in Albania fills us with pride and happiness," a Rama spokesman said last year in a statement to the same media.
All this for this megainvestment that would be financed through the Affinity Partners fund, in which there is capital from Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries.
Hence, environmentalists believe that the key will be the battle of public opinion and that is why several of them often travel to the area to try to raise awareness among the local population. But, even so, it is not at all certain that they can win their battle.
David against Goliath?
In a small country (2.7 million inhabitants), with serious economic problems at a structural level, an increasingly serious depopulation and which in recent years has been sold in the world as a cheap and attractive tourist destination, proof of this are the words of Besnik Vathi, owner of the travel agency Travel Albania in Tirana. Vathi also criticizes the project, but only—and here the paradox—because it is not intended for mass tourism.
"Albania needs to attract many more people than a few rich people can bring," says Vathi, who has been in the business since 1982.
"Albania is a poor country and tourism today is its lifeline. If to achieve it we have to sacrifice something, I am in favor. The problem is that the government is not clear about the project, and the little we know we owe to the Kushners," he adds.
The plan is also more than on track. The Albanian government, according to a document recently published online, would now be working with its American partners to clean the site of any ammunition remains found in the 111 hectares allocated on the island of Sazan, an islet of 2.2 square meters that would be connected to the mainland by a ferry.
In addition, Albania, like other countries in the region, has long been seeking the support of the United States to accelerate its entry into the European Union, which has already given it the status of candidate country in 2014.
Only time will tell if, in this fight of David against Goliath, tourist and real estate ambition or the warnings of the possible environmental impact on a unique natural paradise in Europe will prevail.
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