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Good practice Imported

Tirana's Orbital Forest — A 2-Million-Tree Urban Greenbelt Behind Its 2030 Target

Albania · Tirana · See the Albania profile · See the Tirana profile

Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 89% 27/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Tirana's Boeri-designed 2030 masterplan promised a 2-million-tree orbital forest and river greenbelt; an independent fact-check found municipal planting running at a fraction of that pace, four years in.

2,000,000
Target trees for the orbital forest (by 2030)
~58,000
Trees and shrubs planted (over ~4 years)
~1,208 plantings/month
Early planting rate
~157 plantings/month
Later planting rate

Details

Maturity
Pilot
Promoter
Municipality of Tirana / Parks and Recreation Agency (APR)
Period
2018-2030 (ongoing)
Keywords
urban forestry, municipal government, climate adaptation, flood corridors

Context

Tirana's 2030 masterplan, developed with Stefano Boeri Architetti, proposed an 'orbital forest' of two million trees encircling the city to check urban sprawl, alongside green and blue corridors along the Lana and Tirana rivers for flood resilience and 'pocket forests' in built-up areas to improve air quality.

Activities

Investigating municipal figures, the independent Albanian fact-checking outlet Faktoje.al found the Parks and Recreation Agency (APR) had planted about 58,000 trees and shrubs over roughly four years -- an early rate near 1,208 plantings per month that slowed to about 157 per month -- putting the programme on a trajectory of roughly two centuries to reach the two-million-tree goal rather than the 2030 deadline.

Results

An earlier 2018 target of 100,000 trees planted by World Forest Day was also not met on schedule.

Conclusions

The case is included as an honest example of a well-publicised nature-based masterplan whose ecosystem-service claims (carbon, flood buffering, air quality) remain largely unverified against actual planting and monitoring data.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k) — Municipal parks-agency planting programme; specific budget not itemised in sources.
Time to results
Long (> 3 years) — Masterplan targets 2030; four years of tracked delivery show planting far behind schedule.
Staffing & skills
Tirana Parks and Recreation Agency (APR)

Common failure modes

  • Planting rate slowed from ~1,208 to ~157 per month, putting the programme on a roughly two-century trajectory rather than meeting the 2030 deadline
  • An earlier 2018 target of 100,000 trees by World Forest Day was also missed
  • Ecosystem-service claims (carbon, flood buffering, air quality) remain largely unverified against actual planting and monitoring data

Where it fits

Governance type
municipal government masterplan
Scale
city-wide (Tirana)
Income level
upper-middle-income

Commonly funded by

Own resources / municipal budget

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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