Some aspects of interaction between military activities and

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environmental protection on Lithuanian military grounds

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stron

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Institute of Ecology of Vilnius University

2007

rok

Traditionally, we ideate that military activities and environmentalism are two antagonistic poles.

At first sight it looks true.We really have a large number of samples to background this opinion.

When the Soviet army left Lithuania in 1993, the inventory of environmental situation showed

2743 sources of actual pollution in the then military lands. Only 14% of all military bases did

not contain pollution sources. These are large figures, and they show that in the Soviet period

environmental approach was strange for army commanders. Therefore, the specific character of

activity, a special status of the strong security on those sites and large territories, especially on

military training grounds, supported the formation of specific seminatural and natural habitats

with a large number of valuable biodiversity, which expanded to the surrounding regions. Of

course, the present Lithuanian army is much more strictly controlled by government and public,

therefore environmental problems are currently much more important than before. Certainly,

some environmental incidents and problems exist till now, but as part of the NATO forces and

of the European Union our military forces should implement all environmental requirements

in their activities. Therefore each military base and especially military training grounds had

to prepare the base management plan with a focus on environmental problems. This report is

intended to present the strides and problems of the Lithuanian army in solving environmental

conflicts.

Key words: military activities, environmental pollution, noise, biodiversity, conservation