The Balkan Timber Shadow: How Policy Delays and Historic Governance Gaps Fuel Illegal Logging

In the remote village of Rrajcë Skëndërbej, located within Albania's UNESCO-protected zones, the environmental destruction is absolute. Entire mountain faces have been stripped bare of their ancient forests. On the ground, village elders often point to the sap leaking from the freshly felled beech stumps as a symbol of the landscape's decline. 'We elders, we call that the 'tears of the tree,' said Qemal Bylykbashi, a local elder. 'The trees cry when they are chopped. It hurts my soul.'

This local tragedy reflects a much broader systemic crisis. The Shebenik-Jabllanicë National Park, located on the border of Albania and North Macedonia, contains 600-year-old beech forests that are currently subject to illegal logging. The recent postponement of the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), now delayed until December 2026 for large companies, has created a dangerous window of opportunity. 'For criminal networks operating in the Western Balkans, this regulatory delay provides an opportunity to accelerate the extraction of timber for the grey market before strict geolocation traceability becomes mandatory,' Ahmet Mehmeti, a forestry engineer and member of the Albanian Ecological Club, said.

'They come at night, fast and brutal,' said Muhamet Menalla, a resident of the village of Hotolisht. 'If you ask questions, you are threatened. The local police turn their heads. This forest is our heritage, but it is being sold piece by piece.'

The Legacy of the Governance Vacuum 

To understand Albania’s current environmental crisis, one must look back to the 1990s. After the collapse of Albania’s communist regime, a governance vacuum gripped the country. In remote border regions like Librazhd, the failure of state institutions transformed forests into open resources, a trend documented by research on post-socialist forest utilization.

It was during this decade-long institutional absence that organised crime took hold. These networks did not just steal wood; they built parallel systems of power, funding private construction vehicles to carve new roads into inaccessible mountains.

In an attempt to halt this destruction, the Albanian government introduced a 10-year moratorium on commercial logging in 2016. However, satellite imagery and inspection logs confirm that this ban is widely ignored. Mehmeti, who has witnessed the degradation firsthand, highlighted how the system is manipulated. 'They load their trucks with the highest-quality beech wood,' he said. 'The parcels of land for which they have permission to cut down trees for firewood are not touched, while trees in the parcels with the highest-quality wood are cut down on a massive scale. No rules are observed; they cut what they like.'

Logistics of the Grey Market

The impact of this systemic failure is visible on the mountain routes leading to the national park. Truck drivers operate under extreme pressure, using multiple phones to evade GPS monitoring and enforcing strict secrecy to protect their operations. These routes are treacherous, and drivers work in constant fear of organised crime. Reflecting on the danger, one driver said: 'If Allah wills it, we will go forward; if not, we die now.'

The ecological cost is severe. Global Forest Watch reports that Albania lost 4.4 thousand hectares of natural forest in 2025 alone. Dr Blerina Pupuleku, a biology professor at the University of Aleksandër Xhuvani, warns that this data points to a deeper disaster. 'We are not just losing wood; we are breaking the system that keeps the mountain alive,' she said. 'Without deep roots to hold the earth, the soil washes away, triggering landslides and polluting our rivers. We are destroying nature's safety net.'

Corporate Loopholes and the Italian Connection 

The logs cut from Albania’s mountains travel over 800 kilometres to satisfy a voracious appetite for cheap timber in Western Europe. Italy is Albania's primary market, historically receiving over 70 per cent of its wood exports.

On the ground in Albania, local governance is easily bypassed. Tenders for firewood felling often raise red flags. A review of the Public Procurement Agency of Albania revealed that companies like Alxhef shpk frequently win sole-bidder tenders. Alxhef shpk maintains a long-standing business relationship with Minelli Spa, part of the Italian Minelli Group, which manufactures high-quality wood products for the US and European markets. In April 2025, investigations into corporate supply chains revealed that representatives for Minelli Spa maintained they possessed all necessary EU Timber Regulation (EUTR) documentation, claiming their supplier sources timber from Montenegro and Kosovo. However, despite these paper trails, locals in Albania allege the firewood tenders act as a direct smokescreen for commercial extraction in protected zones.

‘While these mountain operations are officially designated for firewood collection, the use of heavy construction machinery reveals a massive investment in illegal infrastructure that far exceeds the scope of simple firewood gathering,’ Mehmeti said.

A Continental Crisis

Deforestation in the Balkans is not just a local issue. Professors María del Pilar Cordovilla Palomares and Ramón Alberto Batista García from the University of Jaén explain that this destruction impacts Europe’s water cycle. According to the professors, 'Illegal deforestation in the Balkans has a direct, damaging effect on the entire European hydrological cycle.' They warn that as Albanian forests lose their ability to hold water, the effect ripples across the continent's climate.

This issue is gaining international attention. Ana Aguilar, lead climate negotiator for Panama, argues that the solution requires better coordination: 'The answer is aligning current initiatives, connecting forests with finance, and focusing on equitable delivery for people on the ground'.

The Grassroots Guard: Fighting Back

Groups like Nisma: Mbro Lumin Shkumbin are filling the void left by ineffective policies. These volunteers act as the forest’s 'eyes and ears,' using GPS-tagged photos and apps to document illegal logging in real-time. This evidence creates a record of destruction that authorities can no longer ignore. 

In Librazhd and Elbasan, activism goes beyond protesting; it involves testing water quality and tracking illegal timber trucks. Despite intimidation from logging syndicates, the community remains united. By acting as citizen scientists and watchdogs, they prove that while EU regulations may be delayed, local vigilance cannot be stopped.

The Cost of Inaction

The European Union’s decision to delay its anti-deforestation rules (EUDR) until 2026 has, in practice, given a green light to industrial loggers. Driven by high demand from markets like Italy, the logging business remains highly profitable.

In Albania, the 2016 ban on cutting trees has become ineffective. Companies often use 'firewood' permits to hide large-scale logging, while state agencies lack the funding or capacity to stop

them. Because of this, local people are taking action themselves, such as the 'Flamingo Revolution' in Zvërnec, where citizen-led movements are filling the gap left by the authorities.

'To fix this, we need more than just new laws. We need real-time satellite tracking to monitor where the wood is coming from, and direct support for local groups to protect their environment. Without these changes, these forests will remain at risk of being destroyed,' Pupuleku said.