Tirana: A cardboard flamingo has become an unlikely symbol of political anger in Albania. Thousands have been protesting for around 11 days in the capital Tirana and in coastal areas of the country's southwest against a luxury resort project backed by US President Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner. Demonstrators carry banners declaring "Albania is not for sale" alongside flamingo posters and cut-outs that have become a symbol of opposition to the project's potential impact on nearby wetlands and migratory bird routes.
According to Anadolu Agency, the spark that helped ignite the movement came in a May 31 interview with Ivanka Trump that quickly went viral. Describing how she and Kushner first encountered the site, she said: 'We were on a friend's boat and we stopped for a swim. Effectively, that's how we found it ... a beautiful 1,400-hectare private island in the middle of the Mediterranean." The island she was referring to is Sazan, an uninhabited Adriatic island off the Albanian coast that served as a communist-era military base.
Besjana Guri, an environmental activist who received the Goldman Environmental Prize for her work protecting the Vjosa River, said the project raises questions about development in protected areas. "Sazan, first of all, is public land in Albania," she told Anadolu. "It is unexplored in terms of tourism." Questioning the location of the project, she asked: "Why a protected area? Why risk one of the last pristine deltas in the Mediterranean?"
The project linked to Kushner's investment structures envisions luxury hotels, villas, marina infrastructure and a wider tourism zone. The development is valued at $1.6 billion for the island component alone and Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama recently cited a pound 4 billion ($4.7 billion) figure for the wider Vlora area. It includes two components: a resort on Sazan Island and a coastal development in the Narta Lagoon area near Zvernec, part of the protected Vjosa-Narta landscape on the Adriatic coast.
According to environmental groups, excavators began work in the area last month, with land clearance, road openings and fencing in parts of the lagoon zone. Aleksander Trajce, director of the Protection and Preservation of Natural Environment (PPNEA) in Albania, described the project as "land grabbing and destruction of the ecosystem." He said the construction activity began before a permit was issued and without wider consultation.
Construction work has been paused amid backlash and an ongoing probe by Albania's Special Anti-Corruption Prosecution Office (SPAK) related to the project area. According to media reports, on June 2 SPAK issued a preventive seizure order freezing the bank accounts of Albania Land Development, a landholding company, and a firm owned by Qatari investors Moutaz and Ramez Al-Khayyat. The freeze was reportedly lifted shortly after a reassessment.
The project has also drawn attention in the context of Albania's EU accession process. The Vjosa-Narta area's status as a wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention and a key biodiversity area means that under European frameworks, it would be subject to the most stringent protections available. On Tuesday, the European Commission urged Albania to act without delay to ensure alignment with EU environmental legislation.
Yet for many protesters, the resort has become a symbol of broader frustrations with governance after 13 years under Rama, including concerns over transparency and corruption. "This is underlining many other social issues going on in Albania, and people are quite frustrated," Trajce said, adding that he is concerned that political attention is being focused on justifying a private investment, while, in his view, more emphasis should be placed on public investment such as railways, hospitals, education and healthcare.