The Skadar Lake Watershed is now part of the UNESCO World Network of Biosphere Reserves
On 5 June 2026, World Environment Day, UNESCO added the Skadar Lake Watershed to its World Network of Biosphere Reserves - a major win for cross-border nature protection between Montenegro and Albania and the European Green Belt.
From the mountain springs of the Morača River to the shores of the Adriatic, the newly designated Skadar Lake Watershed Biosphere Reserve in Montenegro covers 254,694 hectares. Most of it lies within the European Green Belt, connecting this new reserve with a much larger, borderless network of green and blue spaces stretching across the continent.
The watershed's wetlands and freshwater habitats shelter globally threatened birds like the Dalmatian pelican, the white-tailed eagle and the ferruginous duck, and are home to 82 plant and animal taxa found nowhere outside the Balkans. It also overlaps with 11 EMERALD sites, 11 Important Plant Areas, 12 Key Biodiversity Areas and two Ramsar wetlands, making it one of the richest concentrations of internationally recognized nature values in the region.
What the biosphere reserve status changes is not the map, but the management: instead of drawing new borders, it brings this existing patchwork of protected areas under one larger, coordinated framework for balancing conservation, sustainable development and research - in line with UNESCO's Hangzhou Strategic Action Plan (2026–2035).
This achievement, made possible by the collaboration of many stakeholders, was initiated and led by EnvPro through the project "Skadar/Shkodra Lake Watershed – a Transboundary Biosphere Reserve," funded under the EU IPA Cross-Border Cooperation Programme Montenegro - Albania. The ambition now is for the reserve to grow into a living lab of good practice - a model of partnership delivering lasting benefits for both nature and people.
For more information, please contact:
NGO Environment Programme (EnvPro); ana.katnic(at)envpro.me
Website: https://envpro.me/ ; https://skadarlake-tbr.org/