IIIEE Reports 2001:5 Palanga at a Crossroads: Assessment of Opportunities for Sustainable Development Findings from the environmental review within the course Auditing for Cleaner Pro- duction Edited by: Andrius Plepys (IIIEE) © You may use the contents of the IIIEE publications for informational purposes only. You may not copy, lend, hire, transmit or redistribute these materials for commercial purposes or for compensation of any kind without written permission from IIIEE. When using IIIEE material you must include the following copyright notice: ‘Copyright © IIIEE, Lund University. All rights reserved’ in any copy that you make in a clearly visible position. You may not modify the materials without the permission of IIIEE. Published in 2001 by IIIEE, Lund University, P.O. Box 196, S-221 00 LUND, Sweden, Tel: +46 – 46 222 02 00, Fax: +46 – 46 222 02 10, e-mail: [email protected] http://www.iiiee.org Printed by KFS AB, Lund. ISSN 1650-1675 Assessment of Sustainable Development Opportunities in Palanga Preface This environmental audit report of sustainable development opportunities was completed after an environmental audit of the Palanga municipality, during the March 2001. The report is a joint effort of 32 students from 21 countries, participants of International Master's Programme "Master of Sci- ence in Environmental Management and Policy" at The International Insti- tute for Industrial Environmental Economics at Lund University, Sweden. The report is the outcome of an exercise of one of programme's advanced courses "Auditing for Sustainable Development". The exercise was kindly supported financially by The Swedish Institute and in co-operation with Simrishamn municipality in Sweden. Lund, July 31, 2001 Andrius Plepys (ed.) 5 Assessment of Sustainable Development Opportunities in Palanga The authors of the report are listed below according to the working groups: Strategic Planning Jelena Randjelovic (Yugoslavia), Pavlos Doikos (Greece), Michael Schlup (Switzerland), Priya L Narayan (India), Christina Hansson (Sweden) Tutor: Mårten Karlsson, research associate, IIIEE/Lund University Management & Administration Jonathan Buick (United Kingdom), Erika Nilsson (Sweden), Zeeda Fati- mah Mohamad (Malaysia), Burcu Tuncer (Turkey) Tutors: Beatrice Kogg, PhD candidate, Jaakko Kuisma, PhD candidates, IIIEE/Lund University Public Participation Katja Paetz (Germany), Malin Åberg (Sweden), Kollin Min (USA), Ari Brodach (France) Tutors: Naoko Tojo, Helen Nilsson, PhD candidates, IIIEE/Lund Uni- versity Tourism Sara Edlund (Sweden), Dania Quirola (Ecuador), Christopher van Rossem (Canada), Ketevan Gujaraidze (Georgia) Tutors: Oksana Mont, Adriana Budenau, PhD candidates, IIIEE/Lund University Waste Elena Veligosh (Ukraine), Pingsha Huang (China), Fiona Koza (Canada), Johan Niss (Sweden) Tutors: Harri Moora, project manager, Stockholm Environmental Insti- tute/Tallinn (Estonia); Alex Haxeltine, PhD, IIIEE/Lund University Energy Alexander Mac Farlane (USA), Chi Hoang Kim (Vietnam), Sofia Simões (Portugal), Ylva Arvidsson (Sweden) Tutors: Åke Thidell, Tamilla Gaynutdinova, research associate, IIIEE/Lund University 6 Assessment of Sustainable Development Opportunities in Palanga Water Roland Zinkernagel (Germany), Michael Johnson (USA), Maria Elander (Sweden), Katerina Staneva (Bulgaria) Tutors: Murat Mirata, Camelia Tepelius, PhD candidates, IIIEE/Lund University Transportation Volker Türk (Germany), Danielle Arias (Mexico), Viveka Pålsson (Swe- den), Pablo Morales Peillard (Chile) Tutors: Vladimir Dobes, Charlotte Leire, PhD candidates, IIIEE/Lund University Senior tutors: Dr. Thomas Lindhqvist, Ass. Professor, IIIEE/Lund University, Sweden Dr. Allan Johansson, Professor, Technical Research Centre (Finland), IIIEE/Lund University Dr. Chris Ryan, Professor, IIIEE/Lund University, Sweden Dr. Renato Orsatto, research associate, IIIEE/Lund University, Sweden Local assistants: Rasa Uselytė, Institute of Industrial Engineering (APINI), Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania Valdas Arbaÿiauskas, Institute of Industrial Engineering (APINI), Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania Dr. Olga Belous, Klaipėda University, Dept. of Ecology Students from Klaipėda University: Raimonda Kaupyte, Anastasija Koldajeva, Vilma Burenina, Jurgita Stonyte, , Janina Kalnenaite, Rosita Mileriene, Galina Galko Exercise co-ordinator Andrius Plepys, research associate, IIIEE/Lund University, Sweden 7 Assessment of Sustainable Development Opportunities in Palanga Acknowledgements We would like to acknowledge the following persons for a successful out- come of this report, their support and their precious help: First of all we would like to thank the mayor of Palanga municipality, Mr. Egidius Rimkus, the vice-mayor, Salvijus Jodka, and all the staff of Palanga municipality and all the other interviewees for their hospitality, kindness and help during this exercise. Special thanks go to Martynas Užpelkis, who pro- vided us with precious assistance in Lund and Palanga. Also, for on-site assistance we would like to thank Valdas Arbaÿiauskas, Rasa Uselytė, from The Institute of Environmental Engineering at Kaunas Univer- sity of Tehcnology, Lithuania, Natalia Golovko from Byelorussia State Poly- technic Academy, all the students from Klaipėda Technical University, Dr. Olga Blous without whom the work would not be possible to carry out. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the Swedish Institute (Svenska Institutet) for repetitive financial support in to our MSc programme. Finally, our thanks go to the people providing us with information during our various benchmarking visits throughout southern Sweden, among them Simrishamn Kommun (Lars Svärdh, Margareta Arvidson, Margaretha Hemne, Char- lott Lindström, Eddie Diab, Einar Nilsson, Per-Anders Mårdh, Paul Andersson and Lars-Erik Arvidsson.) and Karlskrona Kommun (Sigurdh R. Petersson)for ex- tremely valuable support in preparation of this exercise. Many others not mentioned contributed to the successful outcome, our final thanks go to them. 8 Assessment of Sustainable Development Opportunities in Palanga Table of Contents I. SUMMARY OF THE REPORT .............................................................14 I-1. INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................14 I-2. DESCRIPTION OF THE PALANGA MUNICIPALITY..............................................15 I-3. PALANGA AT A CROSSROADS ................................................................................16 I-4. PALANGA’S INFRASTRUCTURE: LINKS AND LIMITATIONS...............................18 I-5. RECOMMENDATIONS..............................................................................................21 I-6. CONCLUSIONS..........................................................................................................21 II. SECTOR REPORT: STRATEGIC COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING.................................................. 23 II-1. ABSTRACT................................................................................................................23 II-2. INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................23 II-3. DESCRIPTION OF STRATEGIC PLANNING PROCESS ........................................24 II-4. CURRENT VISIONS IN THE STRATEGIC PLANNING PROCESS ..........................31 II-5. CONCLUSIONS ........................................................................................................31 II-6. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR PALANGA STRATEGIC PLANNING PROCESS......32 II-7. REFERENCES...........................................................................................................35 II-8. APPENDIXES ...........................................................................................................36 III. SECTOR REPORT: MANAGEMENT AND ADMINISTRATION .............................................................................. 39 III-1. INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................39 III-2. CURRENT SITUATION OF MANAGEMENT AND ADMINISTRATION.............40 III-3. ANALYSIS OF THE MANAGERIAL PROCESSES...................................................47 III-4. RECOMMENDATIONS...........................................................................................50 III-5. CONCLUSIONS.......................................................................................................53 III-6. REFERENCES .........................................................................................................53 IV. SECTOR REPORT: DEMOCRATIC PROCESSES & PUBLIC PARTICIPATION................................................................................... 55 IV-1. INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................55 IV-2. DEMOCRACY AND CIVIC PRACTICES................................................................57 IV-3. FUTURE CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES.................................................63 IV-4. RECOMMENDATIONS...........................................................................................66 IV-5. CONCLUSIONS.......................................................................................................68 IV-6. REFERENCES .........................................................................................................69 9 Assessment of Sustainable Development Opportunities in Palanga V. SECTOR REPORT: TOURISM