Law No. I-301 on protected areas.
Country
Type of law
Legislation
Date of original text
Abstract
This Law shall specify the public relations concerning protected areas, the system of protected areas, and the legal basis for the establishment, protection, management and control of protected areas as well as regulate the performance of activities therein. Protected areas shall be established with a view to preserving territorial complexes and objects/properties of natural and cultural heritage, diversity of landscape and biological diversity, ensuring the ecological balance of landscape, well-balanced use and restoration of natural resources, providing conditions for cognitive tourism, scientific research and monitoring of the condition of the environment, promoting territorial complexes and objects/properties of natural and cultural heritage. Activities in protected areas shall be regulated by: (a) this Law, special laws on land use, environmental protection, protection of immovable cultural heritage, protected species of animals, plants and mushrooms, wildlife, wild plants, Environmental Impact Assessment of planned economic activities, forests, territorial planning, construction and other laws; (b) regulations for protected areas; (c) planning documents for protected areas; (d) a standard protection regulation for protected areas; and (e) protection agreements approved by institutions authorized by the Government and concluded with landowners and managers in accordance with the procedure established by the Government and registered in the Real Estate Register when landowners and managers are individually agreed on the establishment or additional management measures. The following functional priority zones shall be distinguished in the planning schemes (boundary and management plans) of state parks: conservative (reserves and reserves), ecological protection, recreational and economic (agricultural, forestry or water management) and other priority zones. These documents also specify landscape management areas where the standard protection regulations for protected areas apply to the protection, use and management of landscapes. The system of protected areas shall be made up of the following categories of protected areas: (a) areas of conservational protection priority. The following types of protected areas shall be attributed to this category: strict reserves, reserves and objects of heritage; (b) areas of restorative protection priority. The following types of protected areas shall be attributed to this category: restorative plots, genetic plots; (c) territories of ecological protection priority. Zones of ecological protection shall be attributed to this category; (d) complex protected areas. The following types of protected areas shall be attributed to this category: state parks national and regional parts, areas of biosphere monitoring strict biosphere reserves and biosphere grounds; (e) Protected areas of the Republic of Lithuania or their parts may, in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 241 of this Law, be included in the Natura 2000 network. The most valuable territories of Lithuania may, in accordance with the procedure be laid down by the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, be granted the status of an outstanding World Heritage site. The nature frame shall join protected areas of a natural type and other ecologically important areas ensuring the ecological balance of landscape into a common system balancing landscape management. In natural and complex reserves, it shall be prohibited: (a) to destroy or damage relief forms as well as protected objects; (b) to mine peat and lake sediments (sapropels), with the exception of those whose mining started prior to the establishment of a reserve; (c) to construct new quarries and mines of mineral deposits, also new bores for the reconnaissance and extraction of oil and gas, to erect the industrial facilities subject to integrated pollution prevention and control permits, airfields, wind power plants, with the exception of the wind mills being restored, to set up dumping grounds, to build other construction works polluting the environment, including those polluting it visually; (d) to collect, explode, cut or otherwise destroy the stones which exceed 0.5 cubic meters and are naturally found in reserves; (e) to dam and regulate natural rivers, to change their courses and the natural level of water in lakes. It shall be allowed to re-erect former dams, other hydrotechnical construction works, to fortify banks, to clean river beds, to set up artificial water bodies, and to carry our other works only in the cases when this is required for the restoration and management of the objects of cultural heritage (immovable heritage properties) located in a reserve and when implementing natural disaster prevention measures in cities, towns and villages; (f) to set up new water bodies not related to the purpose of a reserve and exceeding 0.1 ha; (g) to drain marshes and their adjacent areas and change them to another land use; (h) to build the construction works unrelated to objectives of the establishment of a reserve, with the exception of buildings in existing and former homesteads (when there are remnants of former construction works and/or gardens or when the homesteads are marked in plans of a site or other plans, also when establishing the legal fact), also the locations specified in reserve management plans and/or comprehensive plans, to construct buildings or to increase their volumes on the slopes whose fall exceeds 15 degrees, also at a distance closer than 50 meters away from the upper and lower edge of these slopes; (i) to plant the greenery obstructing the panoramas of historical, cultural and aesthetical value; (j) to install the external advertising unrelated to the complexes and objects/properties protected in a reserve, with the exception of territories of cities and towns; (k) to produce and propagate genetically modified organisms, plants and seeds thereof. This prohibition shall apply also to areas within a radius of five kilometers around the reserves; and (l) to pursue other activities which may harm protected complexes and objects/properties. The State Register of Protected Areas (a data system) shall be established for the purposes of organization of protection of protected areas and rational management thereof and shall include protected areas, with the exception of objects of cultural heritage, and other data required for organization of protection of protected areas and management thereof. This Law consists of X Chapters divided into 34 Articles. Chapter I lays down general provisions. Chapter II establishes the system of protected areas and contains documents of activity regulation. Chapter III regards areas of conservational protection priority and regulation of activities therein. Chapter IV regards complex protected areas and regulation of activities therein. Chapter V regards areas of restorative and ecological protection priority and regulation of activities therein. Chapter VI regards nature frame. Chapter VII deals with establishment of, accounting for, protection and management of protected areas. Chapter VIII deals with state control of protected areas. Chapter IX regards ownership of land and rights and duties of owners, managers and users of land in protected areas. Chapter X establishes liability for the infringement of the Law on protected areas.
Attached files
Web site
Date of consolidation/reprint
Entry into force notes
This Law enters into force on the date of its official publication.
Repealed
No
Source language
English
Legislation Amendment
No
Amended by