The Vjosa Wild River National Park as a Legal Innovation: Creating Transformative Change in Albanian River Governance

Abstract

The Vjosa River in Albania is considered the last European wild river and is a riverine ecosystem of European importance due to its diverse flora and fauna. However, the increasing demand for energy and economic development in Albania has exerted political pressure to install hydropower plants also in the Vjosa River Basin. A coalition of local and international environmental NGOs successfully stopped several hydropower projects on the Vjosa River and has advocated for the establishment of a Vjosa National Park to ensure the integrity of the riverine ecosystem. Against all opposition, in March 2023, the first Wild River National Park was declared and led to the establishment of a new legal category of Protected Areas. This legal innovation is a milestone for global nature conservation and comes with implications for Albanian river management more broadly. Therefore, this research examines which lessons can be drawn from the case study of the Vjosa River about a transition in Albanian river governance by employing an exploratory case study design. Theoretically, this question can be examined by applying transition theory and the novel concept of reparative innovations. Reparative innovations aim at addressing wrongdoings through the process of reparation and facilitate reconciliation by considering historical contexts. The Albanian historical context is characterized by its Communist past, which comes with challenges for the ongoing transition to democracy and EU accession. Despite the successful National Park campaign, the proper enforcement of the Wild River National Park is considered a management challenge for the Albanian government due to weak compliance with national and international environmental standards. Therefore, a right of nature approach provides an alternative in cases where environmental law cannot ensure environmental protection. Legal personhood for rivers stipulates rights and duties for a river that can be enforced in court and has been applied to rivers around the world. Such an approach has been shown to address historical inequalities in post-colonial contexts, however, this practice has not been explored in a post-Soviet context yet. For this purpose, this research showcases how the declaration of the Vjosa Wild River National Park created favorable conditions for the conferral of legal personhood on the Vjosa River. Stakeholder analysis and semi-structured interviews were used to identify stakeholders´ perceptions of the discourse on the Vjosa River and to identify new visions advocated by environmental NGOs, which challenge the current Western growth-oriented regime of Albanian river management. A transition in Albanian river management is becoming more evident and has been accelerated by legal innovations emerging from niches and are supported by landscape actors. This research contributes to the academic debate on transition theory by investigating the role of legal innovations in a transition.