Protesters press Vilnius to strengthen protection for city trees

Protesters called on Vilnius to strengthen protections for urban trees and green spaces at a demonstration outside the municipal government on Thursday, LRT reported.

The Green Party-organised protest, titled “Vilnius: already the capital of firewood?”, saw participants bring logs and placards to Europos Square to criticise municipal decisions on tree protection. After the demonstration, organisers sent the municipality a document with 10 demands on urban planning, tree care and safeguards during construction.

Among the demands were that the city formally recognise its trees and green-space network as strategic climate infrastructure, carry out an independent audit of municipal tree-care functions and workloads within six months, and create at least 15 permanent posts for arborists, ecologists, landscape specialists and project supervisors.

Former Deputy Environment Minister Martynas Norbutas said damage to trees during construction can take years to become visible. Protecting a trunk, he said, does not necessarily safeguard a tree’s roots or growing conditions.

Norbutas called for tree conditions to be documented before construction, assessed during the work and monitored for at least five years after a project is completed. He said contractors or developers should be held responsible if trees die as a result of construction.

Protesters also urged the municipality to include five-year monitoring, financial guarantees and accountability measures in public procurement and construction contracts. They called for a moratorium on felling mature and valuable trees for infrastructure projects until a comprehensive assessment of the city’s trees and the projects’ impact is completed.

Organisers said they were not seeking to halt urban development, but to change a practice in which trees are treated first as obstacles to infrastructure and their ecological, climate and social value is considered only when compensation for felling is calculated.