Suinteresuotų asmenų dalyvavimas Lietuvos saugomų teritorijų valdyme

Abstract

This article addresses the problems associated with the involvement of stakeholders in protected areas management in Lithuania. Limited participation causes conflicts between protected areas’ authorities and stakeholders. The identification and involving of stakeholders in protected areas management is not a widely used practice in Lithuania. According to the Law on Protected Areas of the Republic of the Lithuania, state national and regional parks should establish Joint boards, whose members are the directors of the parks. Representatives come from the authorities, state institutions (universities, research institutes, etc.), and municipalities. But on some boards, members are from non-governmental organisations and local communities. The role of the Joint boards in the management of parks is rather weak and they do not make a significant influence on the outputs of the management. The analysis of the practice of the Joint boards used in the period of 2009-2005 demonstrates the frequencies of the meetings, whether decisions have been made or not on the actual issues of the management of the state parks, and the meetings could be characterised as more informative than the decision making process.The paper also analyses stakeholder and public participation in establishing, designing, planning, and the management of protected areas. According to the Law on Territorialplanning of the Republic of the Lithuania, they can express opinions on certain issues, but they rarely could influence the decision making process. Existing legal background and used practice cause conflicts, meanwhile dialogues between state authorities and stakeholders are not effective and do not facilitate the management process to reach protected areas goals. Finally, the article concludes with sketching the essence of the paper’s research.