Second Environmental Performance Review of Albania

34 Part I: Policymaking, planning and implementation• Support for the formal establishment of thematicnational reference centres (NRCs) following EUand EEA requirements (as part of EIONET);• Provision of further equipment, training andmanuals of procedures for monitoring activities;• Support for the certification and accreditationprocess for the main institutions andlaboratories.Current institutional frameworkThe main feature of the current environmentalmonitoring landscape in Albania is fragmentation,with a mosaic of governmental bodies andspecialized institutions involved in the process, withMoEFWA at the centre.MoEFWA is appointed as the responsible authorityfor environmental monitoring in the country and,with the support of EFA, supervises the monitoringactivities carried out by relevant institutes. At thesame time, it is the main beneficiary and custodian ofthe monitoring data collected.According to the provisions of the 2011 Law onEnvironmental Protection, EFA will become thecompetent authority for the management of theNational Monitoring Network for the Environment,which includes all institutions performingenvironment-related monitoring tasks. Currently, theAgency has among its main tasks the collection,processing and dissemination to the public ofinformation on monitoring data related to theenvironment and forestry. EFA is directly performinga number of monitoring tasks, as follows:• Air quality in Tirana and Elbasan for sixparameters: TSP, PM 10 , Pb, SO 2 , NO 2 , O 3 ;• Municipal wastewater discharges in surfacewaters for eight major cities;• Hazardous substances in surface waters,currently taking place in 35 stations;• The state of forests, forest biodiversity,biomonuments, aromatic–medicinal plants andwild fauna.EFA is coordinating its monitoring activities withother specialized institutions.A number of specialized institutions (some of themhaving modern monitoring equipment, regionalnetworks and laboratories for analysis) havetraditionally performed monitoring tasks andconsequently acquired a high level of expertise ingiven environmental topics. These institutions belonghierarchically to various governmental bodies andacademia and are contracted by MoEFWA on anannual basis as a result of a tendering process. Oneexample is the IPH (under MoH) which has a goodregional institutional network and monitors drinkingand bathing waters, air quality and noise in somecities. Another is the Geological Survey of Albania(GSA) which traditionally monitors groundwaterquality and, on an ad hoc basis, also monitors thequality of sea and coastal waters, and lakes. Otherrelevant structures with environmental monitoringactivities include the Faculty of Natural Sciences andthe Faculty of Agriculture and Environment at theUniversity of Agriculture.In an effort to strengthen the research capacity ofvarious institutions, some new structures haveemerged including the Centre for Flora and FaunaResearch (CFFR), which provides the biodiversityinventory and monitoring services. The Centre bringstogether two former institutions, namely the Museumof Natural Sciences and the Botanical Garden.A full picture of the institutions dealing withmonitoring activities in 2011 is presented intable 3.1.The annual basis of the tendering process forcontracts to carry out monitoring activities makesthe monitoring process and related data flows veryunstable, making it difficult to implementimprovements, and means that a proper mechanismfor sharing, exchange and storage in well-establishedand managed databases is lacking. In 2011, 14separate contracts were concluded by MoEFWA forperforming monitoring tasks. As a consequence, inspite of its coordinating role, EFA does not haveregular information flows in place from the variousinstitutions performing monitoring tasks. TheAgency is also recognized by law as primary user ofthe monitoring data for reporting and assessmenttasks (such as drafting the SER, reporting to theInstitute of Statistics (ISTAT) and EEA, etc.), so itscompetence is hampered by the present situation.In practical terms, the Agency is facing difficulties(both human and financial) in properly performingall the tasks assigned to it. One possible solutionwould be to detach the monitoring tasks from EFAand focus the work of the Agency on coordinatingthe information flows from various monitoringinstitutions (as NRCs) and on using the informationavailable for analysis, reporting and support forpolicy implementation.In turn, the specialized institutions working forMoEFWA on annual contracts do not have themotivation to develop and maintain databases forstoring the collected data, nor the possibility ofputting in place systematic information flows to