Potential risks and some of solutions for implementing LA 21 in Lithuania

Abstract

Lithuania together with Latvia and Estonia are the countries considered to be a common Baltic Sea Region due to similar economical and political situation formed in the course of history during the Soviet occupation. All three East Baltic States are currently undergoing remarkable political, economical, socio- cultural changes, which started after the Independence has been regained. Although Local Agenda 21 has already been developed for a large number of cities in the Baltic Sea Region, Lithuania hasn't Agenda 21 strategy at the national level and its experience with Agenda's 21 implementation is very limited. In May, I 999, Zvejone (Environmental Club, part of Lithuanian Green Movement) has started project "Agenda's 21 activities in Lithuania" which lately concluded that despite various documents, resolutions, and action plans for implementation of Agenda 21 in Lithuania, almost nothing concrete is done at the national level and there is no national policy on Agenda 21 in Lithuania. Only two cities in Lithuania, Kaunas and Klaipeda, are participating in international cooperation projects and preparing together with international partners Local Agendas 21 for their cities. In general the LA21 knowledge is at quite low level. One of the reasons of that is that the authorities and citizens did not receive sufficient information about the Rio documents since the these documents were not in time translated and published. There is lack of training officials who are working to implement sustainable development strategies at local level. Ministry of Environmental Protection does not provide with guidelines for local level.