Antonio CASO, University of Bologna, Italy
Simona GIORDANO, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Italy
In the actual globalized context, the case of Albania stands out for interesting peculiarities. After almost 46 years of communist rule, in the early 1990s the country shifted to a multiparty democracy, thus initiating a difficult transition to a more open-market economy.
In the aftermath of these events, faced with major challenges such as rapid urbanisation and a consequent overuse of land, forests and natural resources, the Country ushered in a period of deep reflections concerning new feasible models of governance. As a matter of fact, the present intensified competition for natural resources (water, forests, rangelands, biodiversity, etc.) and for the services connected to them, proves to highlight their scarcity and the threats posed by a series of factors, including population growth, changes in consumption patterns, climate change and land degradation.
Furthermore, the national scenario is marked by different forms of poor governance, opening the path to the control of land belonging to few people while, at the same time, numerous rural dwellers face food insecurity and poverty, being left with limited access to land itself. According to the World Bank data, agriculture accounts for 19% of the national GDP (2020), thus representing a crucial sector and making it fundamental to implement an effective people-centred land governance. In the described panorama, the Mat Valley, located in the north-east of Albania, is distinguished by a territory scarred with small villages and subsistence farming; social and economic exclusion is widespread, in addition to high levels of unemployment and a significant lack of infrastructures.
The present contribution aims at carrying out an in depth analysis of the Albanian context, with particular reference to the agricultural sector in the context of the Mat Valley, as a precious opportunity to implement development projects capable of leveraging local resources and promoting the shift to a more market-oriented agriculture.
Mots clés : Land grabbing|Territorial vision|Rural development|Albania|Small-scale agriculture
A104236SG