Albania’s Flamingo Protests: Saving Nature – Protecting Democracy

The so-called “Flamingo Revolution” began in late May 2026 as a local resistance movement led by environmental activists and local residents against controversial large-scale luxury tourism projects in protected areas along Albania’s Adriatic coast. The Vjosa-Narta Lagoon is home to breeding grounds for pink flamingos, among many other migratory birds, which have given the protests their name. The movement has rapidly grown into a nationwide protest movement.

The protests focus on threatened coastal ecosystems, but they are about much more than nature conservation. They raise fundamental questions about political accountability, transparency and the balance between the public interest and private investment. For Albania, they are a political signal of unusual scale: the country has not seen a comparable mobilisation of civil society in years. The “Flamingo Revolution” has also quickly crossed borders, with Albanian communities in Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, the United States, Canada and elsewhere organising solidarity protests and supporting the movement on the ground.

The protests centre on two distinct but interconnected sites near Vlora: the island of Sazan and Zvërnec, within the Vjosa-Narta Protected Landscape. Both are ecologically important for Albania and Europe and are threatened by tourism development projects. Similar plans for resorts and large-scale infrastructure projects exist across Albania’s protected-area network. The Vlora Airport, currently under construction, is also located on land that was formerly part of the protected Vjosa-Narta area. Environmental organisations such as PPNEA criticise the privileged investment procedures and the weakening of protected-area legislation in 2024 for facilitating large-scale construction in protected areas.

The European Commission has called for the repeal of the incompatible 2024 amendments to the protected-areas law, while the European Parliament has called for an immediate moratorium on new construction projects in protected areas. The Bern Convention has also called for work on the airport to be suspended until an adequate environmental impact assessment has been completed. At the heart of the debate is the question of how large-scale construction in protected areas can be reconciled with Albania’s EU path – and what role nature conservation, transparency and the public interest should play in the country’s development model.

Program

18:30 - 18:40 pm: Welcome & Intro

18:40 - 19:30 pm: Film 

• „NDALONI AEROPORTIN / STOP THE AIRPORT“ (2023, OV with English subs)  by Albanian investigative journalist Artan Rama. The film documents the conflict surrounding Vlora Airport and gives a voice to Albanian environmental activists.

19:30 - 20:15 pm: Panel Diskussion 

• What are the protesters demanding, and what significance does the movement have for nature conservation in Albania? How is the movement developing – and what political changes are possible and realistic?

  followed by an informal get-together

With:

• Joni Vorpsi, Protection and Preservation of Natural Environment in Albania (PPNEA)
• Artemisa Ljarja, Flamingo Berlin
• Mascha Brammer, Spokesperson, LAG Europe, Alliance 90/The Greens; Co-organisator Flamingo Revolution Club

Moderation: Katja Giebel, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe Unit, Heinrich Böll Foundation Berlin

The event will be held in English. The film will be shown in Albanian with English subtitles.

Information
Katja Giebel
E katja.giebel@boell.de