On the eve of the local elections, the mayor's statements on the greening situation in Tirana, especially those of planting 1 million trees in 5 years, raised strong doubts about the veracity of these claims. The reports on the social media of the heads of the Municipality of Tirana about planting trees and afforestation continued throughout the length of the election campaign. But when the election day passed and the figure of 1 million trees was added and a promise for another million, the official figures of the Municipality of Tirana refute these claims.
Author: Klevin Muka
If Tirana really had as many trees as reported by the mayor, Erion Veliaj, on Facebook , today the citizens of the capital would have difficulty seeing the buildings where they live, due to the greenery.
Veliaj's promises for a green Tirana began in 2015, when in his television appearance during the campaign he publicly promised that, if he became mayor, he would be remembered for the parks he built, while also announcing a moratorium on towers.
The first 3 years at the head of the Municipality were lukewarm for the tree planting campaigns by Mayor Veliaj, while the new towers flourished undisturbed in the capital. And how to overcome the negative image of the towers, in 2018 Veliaj released an idea that would be the envy of every green party in the world.
“The city of Tirana will soon be surrounded by 2 million trees,” declared the mayor, Erion Veliaj, in 2018, when he initially presented the Orbital Forest project . Through this project, he envisioned the establishment of green borders for the capital, which would be defined by forests located on the edges of Tirana’s urban area.
After the presentation of the initiative, the number of declared, planted trees increased significantly, at least on the Mayor's social networks.
Almost every day, on Facebook and Instagram, the mayor updated the public with the new initiatives of the Municipality that he leads for greening. The most numerous posts are about personal donations of individuals, who mainly donate from 1 to 3 trees. Then come organizations or businesses, who donate from 20 trees, up to 400, reported in one case.
In addition to donations, when citizens plant the trees themselves, in other cases the Parks and Recreation Agency handles this process. In its year of creation, 2015, APR estimated as an achievement the planting of 5.000 trees in 3 months, but after 4 years in operation this figure was exceeded by 5 times in just one day.
Photo APR
At the same time, via Facebook , Tirana's number 1 declares that within one day, not a few, but 25.000 trees were planted in Vaqarr.
According to EcoAlbania expert Olsi Nika, this figure is worthy of a world record.
"These are records that are too hard to be true. 1 tree needs at least 10 minutes, in case the pit has been opened before. 25.000 x 5 minutes = 125.000 minutes, we divide it by the number of workers and it comes out, how much time it really takes to do it."
From the photos of Mayor Veliaj, which he has attached to his posts on social networks, the number of workers does not exceed 50 people. According to the accounts, each of the workers has to work 41 hours without any interruption to achieve the record.
Similar records, but not at these levels, Veliaj vows to have achieved in other cases, when he declares that 10.000 trees were planted in one day.
Although on Facebook , Veliaj's campaign to plant trees in Farka continues, in reality the only things that have flourished in the area are construction.
The work of planting trees, at least on Facebook , did not stop. In October 2022, the mayor of the municipality declared that a full 550.000 trees had been planted in the capital since the creation of the APR in 2015.
The number of trees in the Artificial Lake Park in Tirana is around 32.000. Based on the figures declared by the Mayor , this means that there are supposed to be at least 15 other parks in the capital the size of the Artificial Lake, scattered in different areas, but which are nowhere to be found.
According to the expert, Olsi Nika, apart from the fact that this greenery is not evident in the city of Tirana, it is also mathematically impossible to achieve it at the levels claimed by the mayor.
"Regarding the figure given by Veliaj, that of 550.000 trees in 4 years, this is impossible. It is supposed to plant 188 trees every day in Tirana, for every day of the year, but the trees work with seasons, which are spring and autumn. The planting periods are in February-March and October-November", he adds.
He continues, explaining that another element that makes this number impossible is the space needed for each tree. A tree needs a space of 5 square meters, if we calculate it, it means that the green space in Tirana exceeds the urban space of the city, that is, 31 km 2 , but we would have dense forests when we left Tirana, but we do not see these forests anywhere. Tirana is the least green city in Europe.”
In fact, the mayor's figures raise doubts, even in terms of the feasibility of such an action. Asked about the afforestation campaigns at the territory level, the Ministry of Tourism and Environment told ACQJ that in the period 2011-2021, this ministry through its initiatives planted over 1 million and 100 thousand saplings, rehabilitating a total forest area of 683 hectares . Based on this figure, the Municipality of Tirana in recent years has created a green area of at least 300 hectares or at least 3 square kilometers of dedicated area - space for trees.
Today, the Lake Park, which has seen a major shrinkage over the years due to construction permits approved within its historical boundaries, has an average area of 1.8 km2 , while based on the mayor's claims, it is estimated that a new area of more than twice the area of this park has been planted.
Likewise, the mayor's claims regarding the trees planted in Tirana are rejected by the Municipality of Tirana itself through the Parks and Recreation Agency, which in an official response to ACQJ says that, in total in Tirana for the last 6 years, there are planted almost 97 thousand trees, tendered by this institution, with an invoice of 136.925.656 ALL. However, APR answered ACQJ's question about how many trees planted over the years were donations, emphasizing that over 98 trees and shrubs were donations.
No matter how the numbers are read, the APR's response was still far from the claims of Mayor Veliaj. At the same time, in a parallel response from the Municipality of Tirana on the work of APR, the latter states that APR in the period 2015-March 2023, has planted a total of 228,046 trees, which raises strong doubts about the way calculation and inventory of the investments of this institution, falling into strong contradictions with the previous answers, as well as with the official position of the Mayor, Mr. Veliaj.
To ACQJ's questions about how many of the planted trees were donations from third institutions or private persons, the Municipality refused to answer.
ACQJ conducted a detailed survey of the Mayor's official Facebook page , collecting all his statements about trees planted in Tirana, from the beginning of 2019 to March 2023.
About 42.300 trees have been reported on Facebook (approximately by calculation, as 6 different initiatives did not specify the number of trees planted).
The number of trees, reported in Facebook, is different from the figure the mayor declared in October 2022 for 550,000 trees planted and different from what the Parks and Recreation Agency says.
However, the approach of the election campaign of May 2023 brought another rhythm of the mayor Veliaj regarding the planting of trees. Through a status on social networks, in March 2023, he declares that 1 million trees have been planted in Tirana, although only 5 months ago he declared that half of this number had been planted in total. The work, which took the Municipality of Tirana five years to complete, was already completed in 5 months.
Veliaj himself has regularly reported on his social media for this period, accompanied by photos, only about 1.390 planted trees. The traces of the other 448,610 trees are nowhere to be found. Forestry specialist from PPNEA, Ilir Shyti, tells ACQJ that, to plant such a number of trees, a space is needed that exceeds the urban area of the capital. “If they are planted 2 meters apart, 4.400 ha of surface area is needed for 1 million trees at least. The green area of the Artificial Park is 156 ha.” In this reasoning, the green area of Tirana should exceed its urban area. The capital is spread over 40 km 2 in the urban area . For 1 million trees, a space of 44 km 2 is needed.
If there were really 1 million trees in the capital, only the green of the greenery would stand out from Mount Dajti and not the concrete of the towers, which irregularly exceed each other in every corner of the capital.
Orbital Forest , left on paper
The Orbital Forest Project , an ambitious plan of the Municipality of Tirana from 2018, defines it as an instrument for curbing land consumption (agricultural and natural), urban sprawl, identified as the physical limit of development and expansion of the urban system in the natural environment.
This project defines 5 different environments, components of the whole project, more precisely: Dajti National Park, a protected area, consisting mainly of forests; The area surrounding Lake Farka, the point where the green belt penetrates the city, connecting the park with the fourth ring and the urban environment of the southeastern part of the capital; The area between the former municipality of Vaqarri and Farka, which constitutes the natural link between the Erzen River Park and the Lake Park; the area bounded by the Tirana-Durrës axis, part of a large, agricultural territory, consisting mainly of wood-fruit forests; and the Tirana River Park, consisting of the newest green space of the northern part of Tirana, part of the natural system of the banks of the river.
However, despite the efforts and ambitious declarations of the Mayor at the time , almost the entire initiative, with the exception of the planting of decorative trees in the parks of Liqeni and Farka, has remained on paper. Even the Tirana Municipality website itself, dedicated to this initiative, has anemic content, with no information, except for the initial plan.
Following an audit conducted by the Supreme State Audit Office, it was noted that this institution was unable to implement this plan, emphasizing that "the Orbital Forest project for planting trees, due to financial difficulties for budget support, as well as problems related to the lack of necessary spaces for planting and ownership issues, results in a low level of implementation, although a significant part of the implementation period of this objective has passed."
According to urban planner Rodion Gjoka, the idea of the Orbital Forest is fundamentally wrong if it is not accompanied by afforestation in the inner city area, with parks near residential areas.
"What I see as a problem with this approach are two things. The first is that it is used as a propaganda and aesthetic instrument, but it should not be seen as such, at least for a city like Tirana. Another thing for me as an expert, who monitors the quality of the environment in the capital, is that there are no urban parks within residential areas, but that citizens must access suburban parks. The idea is that a family needs at least a park within walking distance every afternoon, to have daily recreation, then if there are activities or other more substantial things, then yes, it can to access these parks outside their residential area", he adds.
The Orbital Forest initiative not only failed to achieve its objective, but failed precisely because its development plan was based on geographical spaces that the Municipality of Tirana itself has given for urban development, starting from the Dry Lake area, the Farka area, where villa complexes and the hills of the Dajti National Park are flourishing. The Municipality of Tirana itself, in response to the ACQJ request, admits that for the Orbital Forest initiative, only 228.000 trees have been planted to date, about 1/10 of the optimistic target.
While the electoral campaign for the local elections has already ended with the leader of the Socialist Party, who declared that the campaign funds would be turned into trees , the only evident park in the capital is that of the Artificial Lake, which, although modest in the trees it contains, only 32 thousand, manages to stand out alongside its rivals with a full 1 million of them. Tirana is now preparing for the Municipality's next ambitious objective, 2 million trees by 2030 , despite the fact that five hundred thousand were planted in just 5 months, at least on social media.
Beyond the massive afforestation highlighted on social media by the Municipality of Tirana and its Mayor, Tirana residents are noticing massive planting of concrete buildings, with 382 construction permits for new buildings, with a total area of 1.8 million square meters , for 2022 alone, compared to "1 million trees" planted in more than 7 years.
