Environment minister orders measures to protect nature in military training grounds

Lithuania’s Environment Minister Kastytis Žuromskas has instructed the State Forest Service and the State Service for Protected Areas to prepare compensatory measures to mitigate threats to natural habitats and species, including the western capercaillie population, in the Rūdininkai and Kapčiamiestis military training grounds, the Environment Ministry announced on Friday.

“Protected species and natural habitats are a treasure and a point of pride for all Lithuanians. Therefore, I am pleased that we have reached a common agreement on their protection and on how to compensate for the impact of the Rūdininkai and Kapčiamiestis military training grounds, which are also strategically important national objects,” the ministry quoted Žuromskas as saying.

He noted that the compensatory areas cover more than 42,000 hectares, which is about 1.5 times larger than the combined size of the two training grounds.

The institutions are tasked with strengthening the long-term and effective protection of the western capercaillie population and other protected species of animals, plants, and fungi, as well as their habitats in Dzūkija National Park, Labanoras Regional Park, their buffer zones, and the buffer zone of the Čepkeliai State Nature Reserve, as well as adjacent state forests.

The State Forest Service has been ordered not to plan new main or selective logging in state forests under its management in these protected areas and adjacent state forest plots that are important for capercaillie protection. It must also refrain from logging in forests where permits have already been issued this year.

The State Service for Protected Areas is to prepare management plans for the specified protected areas to ensure that concrete measures for the protection and restoration of capercaillie and other protected species and habitats are planned in state forests. The content and scope of the planned measures must comply with ecological compensation principles.

By July 1 next year, the State Forest Service and the State Service for Protected Areas must prepare and sign protection agreements under the Law on Protected Areas for the long-term and effective protection of state forests.

The State Forest Service must also amend the internal forest management project plans by July 15 next year to include measures for the protection and restoration of capercaillie, other protected species, and natural habitats.

Agnė Jasinavičiūtė-Trakimienė, director of the State Service for Protected Areas, called the decision an important step in strengthening the protection of the western capercaillie, one of Lithuania’s most endangered bird species. She noted that Dzūkija National Park, Labanoras Regional Park, and the Čepkeliai State Nature Reserve and their surroundings are among the most important capercaillie habitats in Lithuania.

“It is important that, alongside strengthening national defence, we also implement real, scientifically based nature conservation compensation measures, thereby contributing to halting the biodiversity crisis,” she said.

Valdas Kaubrė, director general of the State Forest Service, said the minister’s order was an example of good cooperation. “Finding a balance when we talk about national defence and the protection of protected species is important. These compensatory areas demonstrate the State Forest Service’s approach to environmental protection. The obligations we are taking on with this order are to scientifically prove what measures are needed to increase the capercaillie population,” he said.