Genti Kromidha, Institute for Nature Conservation in Albania
The new hunting law in Albania, adopted in December 2025, restores hunting activity after a 12-year moratorium, claiming strict measures for the protection of biodiversity and sustainable development.
It considers wildlife a national asset and establishes mechanisms for monitoring and control, but there are fears that hunting could turn into pressure on endangered species, due to the lack of sufficient institutional resources for law enforcement on the ground.
Permit procedures and age criteria aim to make the activity more controllable, while high fines and institutional monitoring are intended as guarantees against abuses. However, environmental organizations have not reacted strongly to the adoption of the law, seeing it mainly as a positive step towards controlling hunting, without dwelling on the problems of the specific provisions.
The most critical issue of the law is the designation and management of hunting areas. The law assigns the responsibility of designating the areas to municipalities, although it is known that they do not have the necessary tools and resources to carry out this process properly. The management of the hunting area is entrusted to a manager selected through a tender, who has full powers, including drafting the annual plan for the use of wild fauna.
This broad, business-oriented role of the manager raises concerns about the accuracy of species inventories and the risk of manipulation, especially when the law only allows hunting up to 10 percent of the natural population of a species.
The law also stipulates that the rent of the hunting area is calculated based on the value of the annual hunt, directly linking it to the inventory of wild animals. However, in the absence of the manager, it is not clear who carries out the inventory, leaving room for inaccuracies and abuses. Furthermore, the manager also sets the fees for the use of the area, based on the business plan that has been provided to the management.
The transitional provisions burden local governments with all the responsibilities of the manager until his selection, creating overload and confusion. At the same time, the law stipulates that hunting cannot be practiced in any area without the approval of the annual plan for the use of the hunting area, which must be drafted by the municipalities. This either makes it impossible to open hunting, extending the moratorium with legal obstacles, or creates wide scope for abuse.
In conclusion, the new hunting law, although presented as a modern instrument for wildlife management, in practice raises more questions than solutions.
The burdening of municipalities with tasks that exceed their capacities, the empowerment of private managers with broad powers, and the uncertainties over the fauna inventory create an uncertain terrain for the implementation of the law. Without transparency, sufficient resources, and strong control mechanisms, this law risks becoming a source of abuse and undermining the efforts made to date to protect biodiversity in Albania.
A reasonable way out to address the shortcomings of the current hunting law would be to extend the hunting ban for a period of 2–3 years. This would create the necessary space to organize a complex system, draft the missing bylaws, prepare a national hunting program, and clearly define the areas where hunting can take place.
At the same time, this period would serve to train and strengthen the capacities of local staff, ensuring the correct and sustainable implementation of the law, in accordance with the standards of biodiversity protection and sustainable management of natural resources.
Editorial
