Background: This paper is devoted to preliminary assessment of the economic cost of land degradation in Albania resulting from unsustainable land use, based on comparing the costs of action for dealing with land degradation versus the costs of inaction.
Materials and Methods: The causes of land degradation are divided into proximate and underlying ones, which interact with each other to result in different levels of land degradation. The economic impacts of land degradation on soil uses are valued according to their typology and their different impacts have been classified spatially into on-site and off-site effects, distinguished according to the economic values that are affected.
Results: The results showed that the on-site costs of soil degradation are significant, but are not be a major concern in the short run. However, on the local scale, impacts will be more substantial for the affected areas. The off-site costs of soil degradation are substantial, however. In some cases, they may exceed the on-site costs, despite the fact that a large part of the off-site costs could not be quantified. Discussion and Conclusions: Some of these issues, especially the conservation of water resources and their sustainable management to reduce sedimentation in rivers and dams, and flood risk reduction, call for immediate conservation measures.

Keywords: Cost, Economic assessment, Environmental impact, Land use, Sustainability

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