Shebenik- Jabllanice National Park, Albania

Shebenik- Jabllanice National Park

Hotels, motels and where to sleep

 

Description of Shebenik- Jabllanice National Park

Location: Librajd County
Area: 33,928 hectares

Shebenik- Jabllanice National Park is a fairly new park in Albania. The Shebenik- Jabllanice National Park was opened in 2008 and covers an area of ​​33927 hectares of virgin forest. The rivers Bushstritsa and Karishte flow through it. In addition, there are about 14 glacial lakes here. The highest point of this park is Mount Maya Šebenikut. If you need more information you can contact the official forestry in the city of Librajd to get accurate maps or to learn about the meteorological situation in the area. This is particularly relevant in spring and autumn, when the Balkans are not particularly predictable. Shebenik- Jabllanice National Park has many hiking paths for tourists, but they vary greatly in quality. Just in case, take a compass and enough drinking water.

 

Caution:
Shebenik- Jabllanice National Park is known for its unspoilt nature and beautiful mountain views. However, not all animals that live here differ in appeasable character. In addition to cute and fluffy hares and chanterelles, brown bears, wolves, Balkan lynx and other mammals live here, which can be quite dangerous. Especially if you are traveling alone. You can easily frighten off the animal and it can attack, feeling the danger. The easiest way to protect yourself from such a meeting is to take with you something that rings, knocks, generally produces a sound. Animals instinctively try to escape from man. Well, of course it would not be bad to take a balloon from bears as well.

 

The Shebenik-Jabllanicë National Park is located in the north of the Lake Ohrid along the border between Albania and the Republic of Macedonia in the eastern part of the country. It lies mostly between latitudes 41° and 10° N and longitudes 20° and 30° E. The park comprises 339.277 km2 (130.996 sq mi) in Elbasan County, forming an important section of the Southern European Green Belt because of being home to extremely valuable natural habitats, flora and fauna of international importance. The closest significant towns to the park are Librazhd and Prrenjas.

The park has a diverse and complex geologic history. The national park encompasses most of the connected mountain massifs of Shebenik and Jabllanicë. The area shows a record of deposition that spans from the middle part of the triassic and jurassic period. Formed during the variscan orogeny, the mountains are predominantly formed by ultramafic and metamorphic rocks. Nonetheless, calcareous rocks are among the most common types of rock and often found in the south and southeastern sections of Shebenik.

The bedrock of the park stretches above the forest belt, primarily made of carbon and karst, and dates from the formation of the mountain chain. The area is considerably dominated by mountains which were formed into their present shapes by the huge glaciers of the last ice age. Evidence of glacial action is found throughout the park visible in the form of u-shaped valleys, cirques and several bodies of water. Since the end of the ice ages, sediments deposited themselves on the bedrock, which explains why that region even today has extraordinary fertility.

Under the Köppen climate classification, the park experiences mostly a moderately warm and rainy continental climate under strong influences of the mediterranean climate. The climate is influenced by altitude with lower temperatures generally found at higher elevations. Mean annual precipitation ranges between 1,300 millimetres (51 inches) and 1,800 millimetres (71 inches) depending on geographic region and prevailing climate type inside the park.

 

History

The national park was established in 2008 as the 14th national park in Albania. At that time, a protected area was also planned on the North Macedonian side.

2129.45 hectares of the national park in the upper Bushtrica valley near Rrajca-Skënderbej were added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2017. A large primeval beech forest has been preserved here, which, together with 66 other forests in various countries, forms the World Heritage Site Old Beech Forests and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathian Mountains and other regions of Europe. The world heritage extends from a height of around 1200 meters to over 2000 meters. A buffer zone of 2569.75 hectares surrounds the protected area.

Flora and fauna
The protected border area is part of the European Green Belt, which serves as a retreat for rare animal and plant species. These include bears, wolves and the endangered Balkan lynx Lynx lynx balcanicus, a subspecies of the Eurasian lynx living in North Macedonia and Albania, of which only 30 to 50 specimens were left in 2015. In summer 2012 a Balkan lynx was photographed in the park for the first time. Deer and chamois were almost completely exterminated on the Albanian side by poachers as a result of the lottery uprising.

In some areas, significant forests have been preserved (see previous section).

 

Hotels, motels and where to sleep

Hotel Hasa, Stebleve
Phone. 0682158475

 

Linda Complex, Librazhd
Phone. +355 69 224 1774