Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
the Johannesburg Summit. Lithuania's initial
response to the sustainability agenda, as for
many other countries, fell short of that outlined
in the Johannesburg Summit. Discussions in
Lithuania about Agenda 21 were very often
narrowly focused on environmental issues and
maintained by the Environment Ministry rather
than being implemented in a more holistic and
integrated manner. There were several mitiga-
ting factors for this:
counties and districts. Tourism is explicitly rec-
ognized as being of significant importance to the
Lithuanian economy and to the diversification
of activities in rural areas and the resolution of
associated social problems. The National Tourism
Development Programme (2003) aims to use
tourism resources sustainably to maintain the
growth of income from the tourism sector.
Integration of environmental concerns into
sectoral development strategies is a key priority
for sustainable development in Lithuania. The
NSSDL (2003) builds on the national priorities
and objectives formulated in three documents
approved by Seimas (the Parliament of the
Republic of Lithuania) during 2002, namely:
the 'National Long-term Development Strategy';
the 'National Long-term Economic Development
Strategy' and the 'Master Plan of the Republic
of Lithuania'. The NSSDL (2003) was devel-
oped to align with the European Union's strate-
gic provisions for sustainable development in
anticipation of Lithuania's membership of the
European Union in 2005 and integrates the
work of the ministries of environment, social
security and labour, transport, health, education
and science, economy, foreign affairs, interior
and agriculture, emphasizing the complexity of
a holistic response to the sustainable development
agenda. The strategy emphasizes the import-
ance of minimizing environmental impacts from
the main industrial sectors (transport, industry,
energy, agriculture and tourism) whilst increas-
ing their eco-efficiency, and stresses the need
for reduction in the consumption of energy and
water per GDP unit whilst highlighting the bene-
fits of tourism and its relatively lower impact on
the environment in comparison with other eco-
nomic sectors. The priorities for the exploitation
of European Union structural funding, which
plays a key role in the implementation of the
National Strategy, are outlined in the 'Lithuanian
Single Programming Document for 2004-2006'
(Government of the Republic of Lithuania,
2004). Measure 3.4, for example, covers 'public
tourism infrastructure and services' and empha-
sizes a sustainable approach to the environment.
Cross-cutting - horizontal - themes relating to
sustainable development include specific con-
sideration of the information society, equal
opportunities and regional development.
Rural tourism in Lithuania is defined in
the 'Requirements of Rural Tourism Service
the period 1992-1993 coincided with eco-
nomic transition in Lithuania which posed
serious economic challenges, with ques-
tions of economical survival and avoidance
of poverty higher on the agenda than those
of sustainability;
●
Lithuania had one of the strongest and best
organized environmental protection policies
amongst the ex-Soviet states and is still
amongst the best in the European Union; and
●
the focus for tourism was for the creation of
system, structure, markets and readjust-
ment to different European standards and
in this arena the concept of sustainability
simply did not resonate.
●
Lithuania's strategy for tourism develop-
ment is outlined in the National Tourism
Development Programme (2003). It empha-
sizes sustainable development and integrates
tourism into the wider strategy for economic
development providing vertical integration
between national and regional policy through
the provision of recommendations for the plan-
ning of sustainable development of tourism at
the level of municipalities. The strategy for sus-
tainable tourism development is a significant,
but separate, aspect of the wider sustainable
development strategy for Lithuania and nests
within the National Strategy for the Sustainable
Development of Lithuania (NSSDL) which was
approved in 2003 and presents sustainable deve-
lopment as a 'classical' balanced 'triple-bottom-
line' approach, based on a vision of 'three
pillars of equal importance - environmental
protection, economic development and social
development' establishing a set of sustainable
development indicators (NSSDL, 2003, p. 2).
Thus, sustainability is perceived as a key policy
and planning tool and guiding principle of the
administration of territory and a major consider-
ation in the master plans for Lithuanian regions,
