With help from the University of Gothenburg’s School of Business, Economics and Law, the Swedish International Development Agency compiled a 2009 desk report on the impacts of climate change in the Republic of Macedonia. It concludes that ski tourism will “suffer from a decrease in the length of the ski season, and non-snow-dependent activities will need to be found to reduce dependency on good snow cover.” Strange then that a major development component for the Ohrid region is a nature-damaging ski-resort in National Park Galichica!
In 2012, the Japan International Cooperation Agency conducted an in-depth investigation of the Ohrid region’s wastewater system, uncovering numerous weaknesses and malpractice that result in both the regular release of untreated sewage to Lake Ohrid and a massive waste of resources.
A stepping stone for implementation of the EU’s Water Framework Directive is characterization of water bodies. For Lake Ohrid, this was published in 2015 by the German Federal Enterprise for International Cooperation (GiZ) and results were very mixed: Stable oligotrophic conditions in deep waters are matched by a slide towards eutrophication in the shallows. Meanwhile, although the composition of fish species still favors native kinds, the economically important Ohrid trout and belvica appear to be in deep trouble, indicating a major ecological shift. Out of four biological measures, Lake Ohrid is at risk of failing to maintain good ecological conditions according to three.
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Ohrid SOS 