Lithuania - Overview

Status and trends of biodiversity, including benefits from biodiversity and ecosystem services

Lithuanian ecosystems include natural and semi-natural (forests, bogs, wetlands, meadows), and anthropogenic (agrarian and urban) ecosystems. Among natural ecosystems, forests are particularly important to Lithuania, covering 33% of the country’s territory. Wetlands (raised bogs, fens, transitional mires, etc.) cover 7.9 % of the country, with 70% of wetlands having been lost due to drainage and peat extraction between 1960 and 1980... More »

Main pressures on and drivers of change to biodiversity (direct and indirect)

The status of biological diversity and biological resources in Lithuania is mainly influenced by the following processes: essential changes in geo-ecological conditions due to land drainage during the Soviet period; intensive forest felling; damage of forest ecosystems as a result of natural disasters (pests, etc.) and pollution; destruction of the biological diversity of ligneous plants as a result of the use of selected tree species; changes in the ecological conditions of meadows due to a decline of economic activities there; diffuse agricultural pollution, consisting of loads of organic matter, nitrogen and phosphorus compounds which enter soil with manure and mineral fertilisers, as well as point pollution, consisting of loads of discharge from wastewater treatment plants (WWTP), surface runoff and industrial wastewater which are key factors affecting the ecological status of water bodies; morphological changes of water bodies during Soviet times as a result of the straightening of riverbeds resulting in the destruction of specific habitats of water organisms; illegal fishing in natural inland waters, inefficient stock-taking; pollution of the sea with industrial and municipal waste waters; growth of recreation activities in the natural environment; destruction and decrease of natural landscape islands in urbanized environments; development of road networks and their load intensification... More »

Implementation of the NBSAP

Lithuania’s National Biodiversity Conservation Strategy and Action Plan (NBCSAP) was published in 1998. The NBCSAP was designed to cover a 20-year period with most of the actions meant to be implemented within 5 years. It was foreseen that the Action Plan should be revised five years following initial publication, but unfortunately this has not been done... More »

Actions taken to achieve the 2020 Aichi Biodiversity Targets

Lithuania has made some progress toward the 2020 targets, notably in terms of the conservation of natural resources. Although Target 11 regarding terrestrial protected areas has not yet been met, its network already covers 15.64% of the country’s territory, having increased from 12% since 2004. Milestones have notably been reached in the forest environment, with an increase of 2% in forest cover since 2001 due to a large reforestation policy, a decline of 11% in the logging rate in the last few years, 54% of the Natura 2000 network composed of forest and 30% of all forests included in protected areas... More »

Support mechanisms for national implementation (legislation, funding, capacity-building, coordination, mainstreaming, etc.)

Although capacity-building and cooperation are not well-developed in Lithuania, some successful projects have already been launched that bring together various public bodies (e.g. an NGO-led project to protect and restore and manage 505 ha of threatened coastal habitat, involved for the first time in Lithuania, four municipalities, states’ institutions, a research institution and NGOs).

In addition, there are a number of nation-level, cross-sectoral planning documents that endorse sectoral mainstreaming of biodiversity protection... More »

Mechanisms for monitoring and reviewing implementation

The Law on Environmental Monitoring of the Republic of Lithuania is the main national act establishing an environmental monitoring system in Lithuania, and the State Environmental Monitoring Programme comprehensively describes all measures of state environmental monitoring according to components of the environment observed... More »