Protecting Lake Ohrid, Albania and Macedonia

Diatoms are microscopic algae that are photosynthetic. Each diatom cell is enclosed in a silica shell (called the frustule) which have distinctive shapes and ornamentations. The ornamentations are often species specific and can thus provide important information for their identification and classification. Diatoms inhabit almost all bodies of water including fresh, brackish and salt water, and also terrestrial habitats such as wet rocks, mosses, soils, and even caves. They are either planktonic (living in the open water) or benthic (growing associated with or attached to a particular surface). Different estimates of diatom diversity have been offered. Some authors suggested there may be more than 200,000 species of diatoms (extant and fossil) but more recently a much reduced estimate of 20,000 species was given. Several sites in the world are known as hot-spots for high diatom diversity, most of which represent oligotrophic lakes (i.e. those that are poor in nutrients and abundant

Lin, situated on the shores of Lake Ohrid, is that picturesque village and peninsula you see once you begin to descend Qafa e Thanes on the border between Albania and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. It is a lovely village with red-roofed houses and covered in flowers. The lake here shows its deepest blue, creating a perfect harmony against the hilly bay. If you are a visitor to Lin and want to stay a night or two, Rosa’s guest house is perfect. Everybody knows Rosa and her husband, who run one of the two guest houses in the village.  She has learned how to promote her business, and the guest house is already on Trip Advisor and in many travel guides that include Lin in their itineraries. Rosa understands that listing a business with online travel agencies and establishing connections with tour guides and tour operators are crucial to having tourists throughout the year, not only in summer. But the best promotion is her hospitality, the way she cares for her guests, cooks

Credits: @ArdianFezollari  Lake Ohrid is unique, and has its special day. This day is 21th of June and is celebrated every year from the Municipalities of Pogradec, Ohrid and Struga. The decision for declaring this day- as the Lake Ohrid Day, was taken 17 years ago in February 2000 by the Joint Lake Ohrid Management Board.This year is the Municipality of Pogradec organizing the activities on this day. It is become a tradition that each of three Municipalities around lake Ohrid (Ohrid, Struga and Pogradec) organize the joint celebration by rotation. On this day, the Municipality of Pogradec will also open the Tourist Season for this year. The activities headed by the Mayor of Pogradec Mr, Eduard Kapri will start on 9.00 AM and will last in the late hours of evening. It will be a tour in several places from Lin to Pogradec. The activities are starting in the City Square, where a special program is dedicated for children, with clowns, face painting, animated dancing, games, and ot

From 9 to 14 April 2017, a joint World Heritage Centre/ICOMOS/IUCN Reactive Monitoring mission visited the World Heritage property of Natural and Cultural Heritage of the Ohrid region (the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. The report with findings from this mission is available at  http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/99/documents/ . The mission discussed with the authorities the overall state of conservation of the property and provided technical assistance on the scope and development of a SEA, which should comprehensively assess the potential individual and cumulative impacts of all above-mentioned projects on the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of the property. The 2017 mission concluded that some of the proposals for large-scale infrastructure and construction projects, such as sub-sections (a) and (e) of the A3 road and the Galičica ski resort within the property could lead to irreversible changes to the property, in combination with the developments and transformations t

5th June is the World Environment Day, a day when UN and other organisations are encouraging worldwide awareness and action for the protection of our environment. On occasion of this Day, Ms Irina Bokova, the director General of UNESCO have a message to deliver on how to protect nature and Unesco natural world heritage. The topic for this year is "Connecting People with Nature" Here is her full message on This Day: It may seem hard to believe now, but, fifty years ago, it was thought the best way to protect nature was to make it off-limits to the human population… Today, we know better. We now know that the closer the relationship between people and their natural environment the more likely people are to appreciate the importance of nature and its biodiversity, heritage and water, for their personal well-being and the planet’s future. This spirit guides all UNESCO’s action, embodied in a unique global network of UNESCO-designated sites, designed to bring peopl