here<\/a>.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\nYou are a considered a pioneer in the discourse of Heritage and Environment in Albania. What sparked your interest to examine these kinds of linkages in your native country?\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p>\nI am a Professor at the University of Tirana in the Department of Geography and teach natural and cultural heritage, human ecology and economic evaluation of natural resources. In the new political, social and economic reality, Albania\u2019s natural environment and cultural heritage is facing human-induced threats. Economic prosperity and conservation are clashing and bringing different uses of the resources. \u00a0In this transitional moment for the country that is moving from a centralized economy to one of a free market several new issues have come up concerning both heritage and environment. As a result, my professional interests shifted to study, promote, and protect Albanian heritage, a relatively new and unexplored area of study which requires additional research.<\/span><\/p>\nWhat are some of the current projects that you are working on?\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p>\nOver the past 20 years, Albania has aspired and worked hard to rejoin the international community after decades of isolation. At this pivotal moment when transformation is accelerating, I am particularly concerned with the protection of heritage and nature sites. My forthcoming book is on the Protected areas of Albania, challenges of a developing country<\/i> which I have worked on during my fellowship at the Rachel Carson Center-LMU.<\/span><\/p>\nIn addition to my book, I have taken the opportunity to organize an exhibition at the RCC featuring \u201cNature, culture and tourism in Albania\u201d. This exhibit will travel internationally because there is a growing interest in discovering Albania\u2019s natural and human landscapes that are still largely unknown to the global community. <\/span><\/p>\nAcknowledging the growing investment in tourism in my country, I have decided to prepare a detailed guidebook that will not only inform travelers about Tourism in the protected areas in Albania<\/i> but will hopefully engage them in becoming stewards of these precious landscapes. <\/span><\/p>\nTogether with colleagues from Eberswalde University, Germany, we are also drafting a project within Erasmus about Augmented reality in the Marine protected area \u201cKaraburun-Sazan\u201d<\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Professor\u00a0Merita Dollma is a pioneer in the discourse of Heritage and Environment in Albania. Check out snippets of our interview with Merita below.\u00a0 Dollma was a Rachel Carson Fellow in 2018. To read the complete interview with Merita, click here. You are a considered a pioneer in the discourse of Heritage and Environment in Albania. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":636,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-special-feature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nyuad.nyu.edu\/earthumanities\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nyuad.nyu.edu\/earthumanities\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nyuad.nyu.edu\/earthumanities\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nyuad.nyu.edu\/earthumanities\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nyuad.nyu.edu\/earthumanities\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1043"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nyuad.nyu.edu\/earthumanities\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1043\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1046,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nyuad.nyu.edu\/earthumanities\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1043\/revisions\/1046"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nyuad.nyu.edu\/earthumanities\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nyuad.nyu.edu\/earthumanities\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nyuad.nyu.edu\/earthumanities\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nyuad.nyu.edu\/earthumanities\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}