Monitoring Coastal Ecosystems of Karaburun-Sazan National Marine Park with Common Indicator 16

Karaburun-Sazan National Marine Park (NMP) is a Protected Area with national and international importance, due to its natural features, high biodiversity and historical and cultural values. It is the first National Marine Park in Albania with an area of 12,570.82 hectares, where the marine area near Karaburun Peninsula is 9,848.95 hectares and marine area near Sazani Island is 2,721.87 hectares. The rapid urbanization in most cities of Albania, which is now spreading in the coastal areas and the development of the economic activities, especially tourism, have had a huge impact in the environment. In most cases the impact is evident in the man-made infrastructure built in the response to tourist’s demand and for other economic profits. The situation is not very promising also for the Karaburun-Sazan NMP, which in the last decade has become a touristic attraction and has welcomed many tourists every year. In this study, it has been conducted a monitoring of the Karaburun-Sazan NMP using the monitoring protocol compiled by IMAP and also the relevant Guidance Fact Sheet for Common Indicator 16. The data were collected by field trips in the study area in the first coastline and in a distance till 100 m from the coast. From the National Authority for Geospatial Information were taken Orto photos and from different websites were downloaded satellite images in order to identify all man-made structures in the Park and to estimate their impact on the environment and biodiversity.