FOURTH NATIONAL REPORT OF THE REPUBLIC OF LITHUANIA TO THE CONVENTION ON BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY The Ministry of the Environment of the Republic of Lithuania Lithuania – 2009 CONTENTS 2 Executive summary 3 Chapter I 6 Overview of Biodiversity Status, Trends and Threats Chapter II 22 Current Status of National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans Chapter III 38 Sectoral and Cross – sectoral Integration or Mainstreaming of Biodiversity considerations Chapter IV 78 Progress Towards the 2010 Targets and Implementation of the Strategic Plan Conclusions APPENDIX I 89 Information Concerning Reporting Party and Preparation National Report APPENDIX II 91 Further Sources of Information APPENDIX III.1 92 Progress Towards Targets of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation APPENDIX III.2 103 Progress Towards Targets of the Programme of Work on Protected Areas 2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Lithuanian ecosystems include natural and semi-natural (forests, bogs, wetlands, meadows), and anthropogenic (agrarian and urban) ecosystems. The most valuable Lithuanian ecosystems are: Lithuania‘s major oak-woods (their distribution is uneven, the most valuable of them have survived in the Central Plain of Lithuania (Naujamiestis oak-wood) Dzūkai (Punia wood) and Sūduva (Drausgiris) highlands, and in Kaunas city); hornbeam forests (at the edge of their range are unstable). Mature stands have remained only in protected areas. As regards to habitats of river valleys, out of 63700 km of natural rivers, only 13000 km have not been straightened, rivers in plains having suffered most. Small forest streams are centers of biodiversity; and valleys of big rivers typically a rich variety of habitats. They represent an important element of the Nature Frame (the Neris and Minija river-valleys). The most valuables bog and wetland habitats are a complex which includes wetlands in the Nemunas River delta, reeds and complex of flooded meadows and forests; large bogs - Čepkeliai, Kamanos, Artoji; shallow eutrophic lakes – Žuvintas and fishery ponds; wet and swampy forests - Rūdninkai and Žalioji woods. Speaking about coastal and marine habitats, the Lithuanian coast is 98 km long, with the coastal dunes, the Curonian Spit and former military training grounds as habitats of the greatest value. Natural meadow habitats include flooded meadows and continental meadows. In Lithuania, agricultural landscape with inclusions of natural components occupies ca. 60 percent of the country‘s territory. Utilized agricultural land makes ca. 54 % of the country‘s territory (6530 thou. ha), 70.5 % of them is arable land, 27.5 % - meadows and pastures. The rest is occupied by orchards and other land. Urban ecosystems occupy nearly 5% of Lithuania, of which 2.7% are built-up areas, the rest are roads. Built-up areas occupy an area of approximately 180 thousand hectares, are constantly increasing. During 2004-2008 there was a noticeable trend of expansion of built-up areas at the expense of parks and other urban plantations. This way biodiversity in cities is decreasing. The status of biological diversity and biological resources in Lithuania is mainly influenced by the following processes: essential changes in the geo - ecological conditions due to land drainage in the Soviet period; intensive forest felling, destruction of small forests; damage of forest ecosystems as a result of natural disasters (droughts, pests, etc.) and pollution; changes in the ecological conditions of meadows due to a decline of economic activities there; intense use of chemicals in farming; increase fisheries and illegal fishing; sea pollution with industrial and municipal waste waters; uncontrolled growth of recreation activities in natural environment; destruction and decrease of natural landscape islands in urbanized environment; and development of road network, their load intensification, soaring numbers of motor vehicles. Lithuanian biodiversity represents three large biogeographic units: Eastern Baltic, Central European and the marine province of the Baltic Sea. In broader biogeographic context, Lithuania belongs to the mixed broad-leaved spruce forest zone and is situated near its southern boundary. Borders of large phytogeographic units go across Lithuania: the north boundary of hornbeam (Carpinus betulus) separates the northern and southern broad-leaved - coniferous forests. Lithuanian biodiversity comprises over 20 000 animal, over 6500 fungi, and approximately 1800 plant species. Like in other European countries, number of invasive alien species in Lithuania is rapidly increasing. Only 16 alien animal and plant species are declared alien and in need of 3 elimination, because they cause great damage to biodiversity, agriculture, industry and society. Approximately 548 of alien plants are known in Lithuania to this date, 46 of them are invasive, and another 60 – potentially invasive, as they might cause serious ecological problems in future. Lithuanian biodiversity in natural and anthropogenic ecosystems and natural biological resources are affected by the following factors: habitat loss and their fragmentation (intensive felling, destroying of small woodlands and bushes, industrial forestry, when of only few productive tree species are grown, change of ecological conditions due to draining of big areas, changes of water temperature regime and migration routes due to damming small streams); increased recreational intensity in nature; development of road network and intensification of transport; excessive use of natural resources; soil, water and air pollution; introduction of alien and new species; global climate change; industrialization of agriculture and forestry. In general it could be said that the National Biodiversity Conservation Strategy and Action Plan of the Republic of Lithuania (NBCSAP) is a rather comprehensive document and more or less covers the Convention on Biological Diversity Thematic Programmes and cross-cutting issues. However, as it was approved in 1998 and never updated since (even though it was prepared for a 20 year period and its revision was foreseen every 5 years), it is not surprising that some measures are out-of-date and several CBD targets/measures or Thematic Programmes are not addressed at all. For example, targets of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation are not addressed in the NBCSAP; and of course, some issues that are not applicable for Lithuania (e.g. mountain biodiversity, coral reefs, island biodiversity, desertification, etc.), and therefore not addressed either. Although the NBCSAP was prepared for a 20 year period, it needs to be revised, especially in the light of the new decisions of the Convention, revised programmes and EU requirements. As one of the shortcomings of Lithuanian NBCSAP, the absence of national indicators should be mentioned (the effectiveness of the Action Plan is assessed not by indicators, but by its outcome). However, some good examples in the implementation of NBCSAP should be mentioned as well: in recent years, significant progress was made in designation of new protected areas; research and conservation of the marine environment has been strengthened; Lithuanian system of environmental impact assessment is rather good; species action plans are under preparation; a lot of nature management plans (addressing species and habitats conservation/management) were prepared and adopted (their implementation is ongoing); environmental NGOs became more active, etc. The main obstacle to the implementation of the CBD is the lack of financial resources, since protection of biodiversity and sustainable use of natural resources is not a priority for the Government (economical interests usually override conservation interest). Due to the lack of finance it is not clear when the new NBCSAP will be prepared. It should be also stated that the domestic budget for nature conservation constitutes a small percentage of the national budget and even with the EU funds, the domestic budget for nature conservation should be increased. A lack of political will has been obvious during the reporting period. The Ministry of Environment and its agencies are responsible for implementation of the Convention of Biological Diversity in Lithuania. Other ministries are involved in implementation through development of different sectors. Activities of the Convention cover a wide field of different sectors of the economy. Lack of coordination between different sectors should be addressed by strengthening involvement of other ministries and their implementing 4 agencies in conservation issues. Although Lithuania designated new protected areas, this process should follow the EU requirements. It is necessary to prepare and adopt protected areas strategy and protected areas selection criteria and to improve management of protected areas, especially in terms of involving different stakeholders more closely. Lithuania has a few general strategic programmes that include the Master Plan of the Republic of Lithuania, the Lithuanian National Sustainable Development Strategy, the Long-term Development Strategy of the State, the Long-term Economic Development Strategy of Lithuania until 2015, the National Lisbon Strategy Implementation Programme, and the Programme of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania for 2008-2012. They state that factors of environmental protection will ensure a harmonious and sustainable development of Lithuania in line with the objectives of air, water and biological diversity programmes. The most specific of them all is the Government programme, having