On June 12 Government approved that part of Pabradė and Gaižiūnai training areas and military training territories’ forests would be converted into other land. This will help ensure the diversity of Lithuanian and Allied military exercises and improve training conditions in the above-mentioned training areas.
The resolution was coordinated with the Ministries of Environment and Agriculture, the National Land Service and the Directorate General of State Forests.
Changing the purpose of part of the forests is necessary to ensure the diversity of Lithuanian and Allied military exercises and to improve training conditions in the aforementioned training areas. For this purpose, it is planned to establish new shooting ranges and training fields, sports, warehousing and equipment maintenance infrastructure. It is also planned to build roads for heavy and other military vehicles’ access to training areas, bypassing the territories of cities and towns.
These and other pre-planned infrastructure development works of the Lithuanian Armed Forces are carried out in compliance with environmental protection requirements.
At present, a large part of the used Pabradė and Gaižiūnai training areas and territories intended to be transferred for the purposes of national defence are covered by forests where infrastructure or intensive military training cannot be developed.
The Government adopted a resolution on Wednesday to continue the development of Lithuanian training areas and military training territories, which began in 2014, taking into account the needs of Lithuanian and Allies for exercise and training.
The development projects of General S. Žukauskas training area in Pabradė and Gaižiūnai training area in Rukla are recognized as projects of state significance. The development of these training areas in line with NATO requirements for training of soldiers is planned to be completed by 2022.
Associative Photo (by Vaiga Zalatoriute)
