Minister orders measures to offset environmental risks at 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 address environmental risks at the Rūdininkai and Kapčiamiestis military training grounds, including threats to the western capercaillie population, 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 polygons, which are also strategically important national objects,” Žuromskas said in a statement.

He noted that the compensatory areas cover over 42,000 hectares, making them 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, along with adjacent state forests.

The State Forest Service has been ordered not to plan new main or selective logging in state forests under its management within these protected areas and adjacent state forest plots that are important for capercaillie conservation. It must also refrain from logging in areas 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 included in state forest management.

The measures must align with ecological compensation principles. Both institutions must prepare and sign long-term protection agreements under the Protected Areas Law by July 1 next year. The State Forest Service must also revise internal forest management plans by July 15 next year to incorporate capercaillie and other protected species and habitat conservation and restoration measures.

Agnė Jasinavičiūtė-Trakimienė, director of the State Service for Protected Areas, called the decision a significant step in protecting 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 are among the most important capercaillie habitats in the country.

“It is important that, alongside strengthening national defense, we implement real, scientifically based environmental compensation measures and contribute to halting the biodiversity crisis,” she said.

Valdas Kaubrė, director general of the State Forest Service, described the minister’s order as an example of good cooperation. “Finding a balance between national defense 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 justify what measures are needed to increase the capercaillie population,” he said.