The quiet surface of Lake Prespa has lain still for three million years. Countless butterflies and birds swirl around or slip through its reeds. Surrounding it, the Galičica and Pelister mountain ranges let sun rays break through them and reflect off the water. Prespa, together with its twin lake Ohrid, are among the world’s richest lakes in terms of biodiversity, together with lake Bajkal in Russia, lake Victoria in eastern Africa, and lake Titicaca in northern Latin America.
Lake Prespa is shared between three countries. Its shores are bordered by Greece to the southeast, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to the north and Albania in the south. Micro Prespa, the smaller lake, is dominated by its larger brother, Macro Prespa, forming 2 500 square kilometres of water and nature. Both were designated as ‘Ramsar’ sites, as wetlands of international importance, in 1995. It is a breeding and wintering bird area that counts many endemic species, which are found nowhere else than in Prespa.
“It is my favourite area for tourism," explains Simon Aleksovski, a young man from the region. I have visited each side of the lake. Prespa is much more rustic than Lake Ohrid, which attracts more tourism. It is untouched and has a phenomenal forest; I love to see horses running free there.”
One lake, a shared border
When driving from village to village, on the narrow roads around the lake, activities for tourists and nature preservation initiatives are barely visible. We are in a rural area, remote from main tourist centres of Greece, Albania and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. The biggest town, Resen, counts 16 000 souls.
But Prespa has potential to be developed. The area became a transboundary park in 2000, created by the Prime Ministers of Albania, Greece and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Called Prespa Park, it complements the four already existing natural parks: one in Greece, one in Albania, and two in Macedonia, including Ezerani, a strictly protected ornithological reserve.
“We all struggle together to make this area even more attractive”, explains Nehru Sulejman, from the tourism office in the Resen municipality.
The direction is towards eco-tourism, with a main challenge: managing and controlling pollution, coordinating tourism, and preserving the whole area.
The Albanian and Macedonian sides of Prespa receive respectively 16,000 and 20,000 tourists a year. In Resen, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) recently opened a resource centre for Prespa Park that serves visitors, and also acts as a hub for sustainable agriculture, fishery and forestry, for the local community, experts and civil society organisations. “This kind of structure is much needed, so we are expecting it to develop quickly”, explains Dimitar Sekovski, the coordinator of the project.
Ljupčo Krstevski works in this resource centre: “I noticed an effective improvement in ecological development these last two years.” This nature-lover also runs a little non-governmental organisation that offers tours around fishing villages in Oteševo. He brings people to Golem Grad, the biggest island of the lake, where archaeological sites from the Hellenistic and Roman ages are to be visited. “Today most initiatives are private ones. To go to Golem Grad for example, you should find someone that takes you there with a small motorboat. Our biggest problem for tourism at the moment is the lack of guest beds for visitors coming to the area.”
In parallel, on the other side of the lake, in Albania, Thimaq Lako works on projects financed by the German government. His mission includes enhancing trilateral cooperation, “We focus on projects to reduce the poverty of the region on the Albanian side of the lake, and also reducing current and future pressures on the ecosystem,” he explains.
