Environmental groups oppose clearing Vingio Park pine forests

Environmental groups are opposing plans to remove the forest-land status from plots in Vingio Park, a Vilnius park, as the government prepares to decide whether to allow changes to forests in the city, LRT reported.

Public organisation Girių inspekcija warned that the changes could lead to the felling of the park’s old pine forests. The Extinction Rebellion Lietuva movement said the proposal lacked conclusions from the State Forest Service and other state environmental institutions on reducing forested areas in Vilnius.

The Fridays for Future Lietuva climate movement said the authorities had not provided assessments of the ecological condition of each plot, checks for protected species and habitats, an analysis of alternatives, or evaluations of the potential impact on the environment and climate.

According to the Environment Ministry, which prepared the draft government resolution, a pedestrian and cyclist bridge is planned across the Neris River in the western part of Vingio Park, near the Litexpo exhibition and congress centre. The project would involve two plots measuring 0.87 hectares and 0.73 hectares. Vilnius City Municipality says the bridge would improve the city’s mobility and image.

The municipality told BNS that government approval has been required since January to convert forest land to other uses. It said the conversion was necessary to build the bridge structures and pedestrian and cycle paths, adding that a construction permit could not be issued without the procedure.

Extinction Rebellion Lietuva criticised the proposal to convert a 1.7311-hectare forest plot in the park, saying it did not specify particular construction projects and instead referred generally to the creation of public-use, common-use and separate green-space areas.

Fridays for Future Lietuva and Extinction Rebellion Lietuva said they had appealed last week to Prosecutor General Nida Grunskienė to defend the public interest and protect the Neris riverbanks in Vilnius, which they described as having high recreational potential. The Prosecutor General’s Office told BNS that it had received and was examining the appeals.

Girių inspekcija also said it opposed removing the forest-land status from the two Vingio Park plots. The organisation said State Forest Cadastre data showed that pine forests up to 225 years old grew there.

“We strongly oppose converting the forest land of these two plots to other uses until it is reliably proven that the plans will not affect the 225-year-old pines, their root systems, habitat integrity and ecological environment,” the organisation said.

Girių inspekcija said the 225-year-old pine forest in central Vilnius was an exceptional and practically irreplaceable ecological, landscape, climate-regulation, recreational and cultural asset. It said the forest could not be compensated for with new plantings.

Laurynas Žemaitis, the organisation’s founder, told BNS that it was not yet clear how many trees could be felled. He said the organisation was preparing requests to establish the precise number of trees at risk and assess the damage to nature.

Vilnius Municipality has proposed converting part of the city’s forests to other uses, with the Environment Ministry supporting the proposal. The draft resolution would change the designation of more than 20 plots, converting a total of 10.14 hectares of forest in the city for various purposes.