BIODIVERSITAS ISSN: 1412-033X Volume 23, Number 3, March 2022 E-ISSN: 2085-4722 Pages: 1319-1326 DOI: 10.13057/biodiv/d230316 Assessing the relationship between biodiversity conservation and slow food culture in selected protected areas in Albania SPASE SHUMKA 1, , ENKELEDA BERBERI 1 , MANJOLA KULICI 1 , SUADA MUÇAJ 1 , FLORJAN VLADI 2 1 Department of Food Science and Biotechnology, Faculty of Biotechnology and Food, Agricultural University of Tirana. Rruga Paisi Vodica 1025, Tirana, Albania. Tel./fax.: +355-47-200-874,  email: sprespa@gmai.com 2 GIS Consultant, Abkons. Rruga Themistokli Gërmenji 6, Tirana, Albania Manuscript received: 3 February 2022. Revision accepted: 18 February 2022. Abstract. Shumka S, Berberi E, Kulici M, Muçaj S, Vladi F. 2022. Assessing the relationship between biodiversity conservation and slow food culture in selected protected areas in Albania. Biodiversitas 23: 1319-1326. Information on the knowledge, uses, and abundance of natural resources in protected areas can provide insight into conservation status and strategies in these locations and human attitudes. The slow-food concept is introduced to accommodate agriculture and food production with strong consideration on environment sustainability, biodiversity conservation and social justice. This paper investigates the slow food knowledge, perception, and contribution to nature conservation in Albania's five protected areas. The performed work is based on a field survey and structured questionnaire aiming to link the current stands within slow food, biodiversity conservation and perceptions of the tourism sector in the protected areas. Our integrated analysis found that the coverage of food biodiversity items related to slow food culture that are relevant to prescribed management plans of the protected areas was at the low level from 4-9 out of 17 considered categories. This was directly related to the low level of conservation at the mid-term assessment that varied from 0 to 62% of originally planned ones. The data also confirmed that the visitors were imposed to a situation of readiness for paying extra for the consumption of the locally based product (i.e., in line with slow food concept) within a specific protected area with their response ranging from 0 to 18%. The information can be used towards generating sustainable use and conservation plans that are appropriate for the local communities and protected areas. Keywords: Biodiversity loss, conservation, habitat fragmentation, heritage INTRODUCTION Biodiversity loss on various ecosystems and agricultural lands across the world has been a serious concern in recent decades (Donal et al. 2001; Brunetti et al. 2019). Recognizing the fact that biodiversity crisis and the climate crisis are interlinked, global communities, including European Union (EU) have pledged various commitments to address the main drivers of biodiversity loss, and put in place an enhanced governance framework and filling policy gaps, for example through the new “EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 - Bringing nature back into our lives” (EU 2021). Nonetheless, with the current situation of the COVID-19 crisis, conserving and restoring biodiversity will be a critical element considering the efforts for economic recovery in Europe following the pandemic, which poses additional challenges for transitional countries on the continent. There is a general consensus that biodiversity enables agricultural systems to overcome environmental shocks, changing climates and pandemics (CBD 2002; Dickinson et al. 2011; Barbeito et al. 2020). Further, it provides ecosystem services that are essential to life, like pollination and non-timber forest products (Rahawarin 2017). It allows the production of food with a minimal impact on non- renewable resources (water and soil above all) and with less need for external inputs that are costly and harmful to the environment, like fertilizers and pesticides for plants and antibiotics for livestock. Due to the growing interest in the effects of agriculture and tourism on the surrounding environment and biodiversity (Brunetti et al. 2019), there are several approaches and models of integrating tourism, farming activity and biodiversity conservation (Green et al. 2005; Baumgartner and Quaas 2010; Conde et al. 2017). This includes consideration of conservation from landscape- scale biodiversity to genetic diversity present in crop varieties (Brunetti et al. 2019). Particularly on genetic diversity to produce food resources (often called 'genetic resources'), it mainly refers to domesticated biodiversity and is developed for agriculture (Conde et al. 2017; Baumgartner and Quaas 2010; Fontes and Groom 2016; Green et al. 2005). The issue of genetic resources is directly interlinked with food availability and security, demonstrating the importance of development policy through its conservation (Bommarco et al. 2013). One approach in the conservation of genetic resources is by naming the agricultural product and food generated from it after the place where it has a long domestication and cultivation history (Callon et al. 2002). Product differentiation based on the place of origin is increasingly promoted as a strategy to grow the market and address different sectors of the economy (Tregear et al. 2007; Paul 2014; Voinea et al. 2016). There is emerging interest that combines the conservation of the genetic resource and food production on the slow food concept. There are various definitions of slow food concepts and practices. Still, it can basically be