Buvusių karinių teritorijų renovacija

Abstract

On 11 March 1990 the independent Lithuania State was restored, followed by great positive changes in social order, the legal system, the economy, agriculture, science, culture and followed both positive and negative changes in environmental protection. One of the most important changes the withdrawal of former Soviet troops in the early 1990s received world-wide attention, however little known about the fate of the property those forces left behind. As the countrv officials began inventorying the abandoned sites, the scope and consequences of the closures of bases began to emerge. Local officials began to discover that lank.s and munitions had spoiled forests and land in training areas, different chemicals and oil products had contaminated the soil, lakes. rivers and other environmental sites, and self-sufficient military cities had been built in restricted areas. This ecological damage inflected by Soviet army troops being in Lithuania approximately 50 years. Totally more than 421 bases and objects were constructed during 50 years. Many of bases-were situated near the most strategic sites from the military point of view and near the sensitive and vulnerable territories from the standpoint of the environment. The article is an oven>iew of the massive military bases closure, its economical consequences and environmental damages, and also is the attempt to assess the military base closure and conversion efforts.