Tirana (Albania) (AFP) – Preliminary work on a vast hotel project linked to the Trump family has already caused irreparable damage to a once pristine stretch of Albania’s coast, scientists and activists say.

Satellite images obtained by AFP show that during a 25-day period in May, a road was cleared, an entire zone deforested and a bridge built to span the channel connecting the Narta lagoon to the sea.

“Bulldozers on the beaches have already damaged the nesting sites of loggerhead turtles, which are threatened with extinction,” Olsi Nika, a marine biologist who heads the NGO EcoAlbania, told AFP.

In addition, the nesting grounds of numerous bird species have been disturbed by access roads through the dunes and the felling of trees, while construction on a vital channel between the lagoon and the sea has severely disrupted water flows essential to maintaining wetlands.

“An absolute biodiversity massacre,” says Nika.

Daily demonstrations against the project have led to the suspension of some work, but the “damage caused to the heritage site long before construction even began is largely irreparable”, says Ferdinand Bego, a professor at the University of Tirana.

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