A central Albanian protected landscape mixing mountain forests, karst formations, and traditional highland villages.
Mali me Gropa-Bizë-Martanesh Nature Park
Mali me Gropa-Bizë-Martanesh Nature Park is a habitat and species management area in central Albania, classified as a Category IV protected area by the Albanian government and recognized internationally as Category V by the IUCN. Covering roughly 25,000 hectares across the Bulqizë, Mat, and Tirana districts, it extends across the municipalities of Xibër, Martanesh, and Shëngjergj, with several villages scattered through its territory. The park sits adjacent to the expanded Dajti National Park to the northwest and forms part of a continuous natural corridor that includes the Bovilla basin and Qafështama National Park further north.
The protected landscape is dominated by forested mountains, with forests making up nearly seventy percent of its area, dissected by deep canyons, glacial valleys, and karst plateaus. It is biogeographically part of the Dinaric alpine mixed forests ecoregion, and the region has been recognized by Plantlife as an Important Plant Area of international significance. Both its ecological richness and its mix of ecological, traditional, and recreational zones make it one of the more heterogeneous protected landscapes in Albania's interior.
Ecologically, the park supports a substantial vertebrate fauna and a flora of about 450 vascular plant species, and includes five natural monuments such as caves and a glacial lake. Brown bears, grey wolves, and lynx still inhabit the denser forest tracts, while alpine and Mediterranean bird species, reptiles, and amphibians share the vertical mosaic of habitats that runs from Mediterranean woodland up into alpine grasslands.
