Society’s main existential threat today (and tomorrow) is climate change. Whilst COP26 in Glasgow delivered important commitments to meet the environmental targets set out in the 2015 Paris Agreement, a critical requirement is to act NOW at global, national, and decentralized levels to achieve the targets agreed. 

That said, it is important to remember that climate change does not recognize or stop at borders so that interventions also need to be developed at the regional level. Therefore, the countries in the Western Balkans need support to mitigate/adapt to climate change, address related agriculture issues, and slow down/reverse outward migration from rural areas. 

To address these issues, CNVP is in the process of updating its current strategy for the Western Balkans to help the region’s countries take evidence-based action, facilitate cross-border cooperation, and speed up talks to achieve EU membership.

In support of this, CNVP Albania coordinated a series of informal meetings in Tirana during 9-13 December 2021. Two members of CNVP’s Executive Board and a CNVP Supervisory Board member held discussions with Albanian public officials, academics from Tirana’s Agriculture University, international NGOs (European Initiative, UK; Green Home, Montenegro; and PONT, Germany), Albania’s National Forest and Pasture Users’ Association, British Embassy personnel (including the Ambassador), other donors, and CNVP Albania staff.

The discussion focused on possible interventions to address climate change/environmental issues. These included but were not limited to, natural resource and land use management, nature conservation, biodiversity, nature-based solutions, agri-rural development, forestry and agroforestry, wetlands’ management, rewilding, green/blue corridors, using wood biomass for renewable energy, circular economy, carbon sink development, control of illegal logging, carbon sequestration in lagoons, upstream watershed management, and climate-smart forest management.

CNVP’s post-COP26 strategy will be uploaded to its website once the document has been finalized.