**4. Case study II: Prespa-Ohrid Ecoregion, North Macedonia, Albania and Greece**

Spanning the borders of Albania, Greece and North Macedonia in the Western Balkans, the Prespa-Ohrid Ecoregion has been identified as one of Europe's biodiversity hotspots (see **Figure 3**). At the heart of the region are Lake Ohrid and the Prespa Lakes. Lake Ohrid, shared between North Macedonia and Albania, is possibly the oldest lake in continuous existence in Europe with an estimated age of 1.4 million years; it is also one of the most voluminous freshwater bodies in Europe. Due to the karstic bedrock, water from the Lake Prespa basin contributes significantly to the water inflow of Lake Ohrid. The Prespa basin includes the Greater Prespa Lake (shared between the three countries) and Lesser Prespa Lake (shared between Greece and Albania).

There are many protected areas in the Prespa-Ohrid Ecoregion established to protect its extraordinary biodiversity. International designations include the transboundary Prespa Park, Natural and Cultural Heritage of the Ohrid Region, a transboundary mixed (natural and cultural) World Heritage Site, the Ohrid-Prespa Transboundary Biosphere Reserve, and several Ramsar sites. There are two Natura 2000 sites in the Greek part of the region and several Emerald sites in the Albanian and Macedonian parts. Following the IUCN typology, the governance of protected areas in the Prespa-Ohrid Ecoregion falls in the governance by government model [28]. Nonetheless, conservation is not a priority for the three national governments, and protected area management authorities are both understaffed and underfunded or absent altogether.

So far transboundary cooperation functions informally. The most important conservation challenges in the Prespa basin are related to water quality and eutrophication, exacerbated by the recent significant water level decrease and climate change. Habitat degradation and urbanization along the lake shores top the long list of threats to the Lake Ohrid ecosystem.

On a socio-economic level there are high unemployment rates resulting in young people leaving the area. The ethnically diverse mix of people are living under poor local economic conditions with difficulties in trading local products, and a lack of basic *The Importance of Partnerships for Effective Protected Area Management DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.99595*

#### **Figure 3.**

*Location of the Prespa Ohrid ecoregion in the Western Balkans (map prepared by Ronny Dobbelsteijn).*

infrastructure. Civil society in the Prespa area is weak especially in Albania and North Macedonia. The rural area is dominated by agriculture with some income from stockbreeding, fisheries, forestry and tourism [29]. The secondary and tertiary sectors, in particular tourism, have a dominant role in the economy of the Ohrid region [30, 31].

The transboundary cooperation in the Prespa basin functions informally, despite the decades-long efforts to establish formal institutions. To address the lack of formal functioning transboundary institutions the three main conservation Non-Governmental organizations (NGOs), the Macedonian Ecological Society (MES), the Protection and Preservation of Natural Environment in Albania (PPNEA) and the Society for the Protection of Prespa in Greece (SPP), formed a network in 2013 called PrespaNet. The three partners work together to protect the transboundary Prespa lakes basin for the sustainable benefit of both people and wildlife. The joint Lake Ohrid Watershed Management Committee, established by the Albanian and Macedonian governments in 2004 meets irregularly and its Secretariat has been mostly inoperative [32].

#### **4.1 Prespa Ohrid Nature Trust**

Cooperation within and across borders is crucial to ensure sustainable conservation and effective management of protected areas. Prespa Ohrid Nature Trust (PONT) established in 2015 is a transboundary conservation trust fund providing long-term financing (~€1.5-2million/year drawdown until at least 2030), which is additionally used to leverage the co-financing of activities.

PONT enables protected areas in the Prespa-Ohrid Ecoregion to develop and implement their management plans to conserve nature through sustainable cofinancing of operational costs. PONT supports the protected area staff with the development and use of standard operational planning and reporting systems, in line with the management plans, for the implementation of protected area programmes. Biodiversity monitoring systems are developed in which data collection, data analysis and habitat management are implemented, with an efficient division of what can be done by the protected area staff themselves, local people and what to outsource to third parties. Enabling the protected area staff to increasingly use scientific data in managing the area is included in the third-party contracts. The inclusion of minimum Natura 2000 requirements will gain importance in the coming years. **Figure 4** illustrates the PONT protected area grant programme.

Qualified NGOs, municipalities and research institutes with a local presence in the Prespa-Ohrid Ecoregion and with a strategy in conservation, developing society, improving communities, and promoting citizen participation in conservation are eligible for PONT grants to environmental actors. PONT funding priorities for environmental actors are mainly focused on transboundary conservation activities, some important specialized conservation activities and work related to naturebased tourism and Non Timber Forest Products. In addition, environmental actors are supported with their operations and organizational development with the aim to make the organizations more robust and capable of sourcing third party funding.

PONT financial support to NGOs and research institutes is directed towards the implementation of activities identified in the management plans for the respective protected areas and where there is a lack of capacity within the protected area management authorities. Applied research, with the involvement of protected area staff, directly focused on species or habitat management is also supported, but fundamental research is not. **Figure 5** illustrates PONT's environmental actor grant programme.

**Figure 4.** *PONT's protected area grant programme.*

*The Importance of Partnerships for Effective Protected Area Management DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.99595*
