Satellite images reveal that during a 25-day period in May, a road was cleared, an entire zone deforested and a bridge built. Photo: AFP

TIRANA – Preliminary work on a vast hotel project linked to the Trump family has already caused irreparable damage to a once pristine stretch of Albania’s coast, scientists and activists say.

Satellite images obtained by AFP show that during a 25-day period in May, a road was cleared, an entire zone deforested and a bridge built to span the channel connecting the Narta lagoon to the sea.

“Bulldozers on the beaches have already damaged the nesting sites of loggerhead turtles, which are threatened with extinction,” Olsi Nika, a marine biologist who heads the non-governmental environmental organisation EcoAlbania, told AFP.

In addition, the nesting grounds of numerous bird species have been disturbed by access roads through the dunes and the felling of trees, while construction on a vital channel between the lagoon and the sea has severely disrupted water flows essential to maintaining wetlands.

“An absolute biodiversity massacre,” says Nika.

Daily demonstrations against the project have led to the suspension of some work, but the “damage caused to the heritage site long before construction even began is largely irreparable”, says Ferdinand Bego, a professor at the University of Tirana.

Police officers scuffle with protesters on July 2, during a demonstration against the government, following weeks of protests against the planned luxury resort. Photo: REUTERS

Flamingos

Environmental activists have long raised concerns about the €4.5 billion (S$6.6 billion) project – first mooted in 2024 by US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner – to build luxury hotels amid flamingo colonies and on a deserted island.

In a podcast, Trump’s daughter Ivanka explained that “we have not just the island, but five miles (8km) of beachfront directly across from the island with a beautiful peninsula with a lagoon on one side, the ocean on the other, and beautiful white sand beaches”.

Albanians have been protesting against the project for months, but it was when barbed wire appeared six weeks ago to mark out the boundaries of the complex that anger erupted.

Private security guards suppressed one protest, further sparking a succession of demonstrations.

Anger erupted when barbed wires appeared to mark out the boundaries of the complex. Photo: REUTERS

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, whose government has been in power for 13 years, defends what it calls “Europe’s finest project”, saying it will help Albania catch up with coastal neighbours Montenegro, Greece and Croatia by attracting international capital and creating jobs.

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