ENG - UN CC:Learn

EUROPE AND THE COMMONWEALTH OF
INDEPENDENT STATES
LITHUANIA
MDG7
Progress Towards Environmental Sustainability
Klaipeda
Increasing land urbanization, along with new economic priorities, has
changed the structure of the Lithuanian territory during the past 13 years.For
POLAND
BELARUS
centuries the prevailing structure of the landscape had been agrarian with
varying degrees of forest coverage. As of January 2003, 60.7% of the
Lithuanian landscape was dedicated to agriculture, while 30.1% remained as forestland.
Over the years, increasing land privatization (at a rate of 3%-5% per year) resulted in increasing urbanization and fragmentation
of the land. By 2002, 43% of Lithuanian territory was privately owned. Swift economic development and a
growing GDP,as well as favorable loan conditions,facilitated a 38.9% increase of urban territory in 2002 alone (from 933,300
hectares in 2001 to 1,296,430 hectares in 2002).
Actions taken to protect the land and Lithuania’s biodiversity have led to positive results. During the past 13 years, the Lithuanian territory
under protection has increased from 4.7% to 12.0%. In 2002, the area under protection increased by 11,460 hectares, which was
mainly due to the establishment of the Zuvintas Biosphere Reservation.
In addition,Lithuania plans to implement NATURA 2000,a European Union (EU) Nature Conservation policy,which aims to expand a network
of protected areas covering fragile and valuable natural habitats and species of particular importance for the conservation of biological
diversity within the territory of Lithuania and the EU.
Water management, especially wastewater treatment, is a key priority of the National Environmental Strategy and Action Plan of
Lithuania. In light of this, the promotion of cleaner production principles in industry is particularly important because swift economic
developments will increase the use of water in industry and other sectors,
which in turn will increase the quantity of wastewater discharged
into surface waters.
QUICK FACTS
Total UNDP-GEF and Co-Finance: $26,333,700
Total: $26,333,700
Cumulative Total ODS Phased-Out:
368 ODP tonnes
Baltic
Sea
RUSSIA
LATVIA
Siauliai
LITHUANIA
Kaunas
Vilnius
Further policy actions are needed,however,to implement a river basin
management system and to promote ecological farming, sustainable
consumption, and other measures for decreasing water consumption
and pollution. Continuous building of the competence of civil servants
and raising the public’s environmental awareness also constitute
important elements in the task to ensure environmental sustainability
in Lithuania. 1
Phasing-out POPs to Protect the Environment and Human Health 2
SPOTLIGHT
Persistent organic pollutants, or POPs, are chemicals such as pesticides, industrial chemicals, and
unwanted by-products of industrial processes or combustion. POPs circulate globally and can cause
cancer, damage people’s immune systems as well as species and ecosystems both adjacent to and far
away from their sources. The Stockholm Convention was adopted in 2001 to protect human health and
the Environment from POPs. UNDP seeks to assist developing countries in building the policy, programme
and technical capacity to properly destroy obsolete stocks of POPs and remediate POPs contaminated
sites.
The GEF funded assistance initiative that UNDP is implementing in partnership with Lithuania aims at increasing the country’s
capacity to comply with the Stockholm Convention agreements. US$381,400 have been allocated towards establishment of
national systems and mechanisms including detailed inventory development. Programme activities were designed based on
the findings of a thOrough needs assessment, including the review of the existing legal framework.
The project has successfully conducted reports of inventories and an analysis of dioxin/furans. In addition, in terms of training
and awareness-raising, 40 representatives from various public and private sector institutions attended a training session on
how to develop and compare management options for the various prioritized NIP action plans, while during the first quarter of
2005 awareness-raising activities, including 12 seminars, questioning of stakeholders and 3 television programmes have been
successfully organized to increase understanding of the negative impact of POPs on human health.
CHEMICALS
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