|
Local Agenda 21 in Nuclear Regions Program
in Visaginas, Lithuania near Ignalina nuclear power plant
ECOLOGIA (ECOlogists Linked for Organizing Grassroots Initiatives and
Action) is an international non-governmental organization. ECOLOGIA’s “Local
Agenda 21 in Nuclear Regions” program promotes and assists in the creation
and implementation of sustainable development planning in nuclear communities
in
Contents
of handout:
1. The
2. Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant. From
Soviet times
3. The Nuclear Town Visaginas. Visaginas is a multicultural town built in 1975 as a place
for workers of Ignalina Nuclear Power plant to live.
For the building and operation of the plant most of people were brought from
different corners of former
4. The Project “Mitigation of Social Consequences in
the Period of INPP Decommissioning.”
4.1 Summary of
Project
Since 1999,
ECOLOGIA has been working with residents of Visaginas
to address the social issues surrounding Ignalina NPP’s decommissioning by implementing the project
“Mitigation of Social Consequences in the Period of Ignalina
Nuclear Power Plant Decommissioning”
Experts from
4.2 Project Goals
4.3 Accomplishments and
Methods
Method 1: Creation and
implementation of Local Agenda 21 plan for Visaginas |
|
Goals |
Methods |
Introduce concept of sustainable development and
Local Agenda 21 in Visaginas. |
ECOLOGIA held two
two-day long working meetings “Local Agenda 21 for Visaginas”
in November 2001 and February 2001 with the participation of representatives
of local municipality, NGOs and business sector, experts from other
Lithuanian towns and Russia and Belarus. Conception of sustainable
development and methods of Local Agenda 21 (LA21) were introduced to
participants. |
Creation of Local Agenda 21 plan for Visaginas |
Participants
in ECOLOGIA meetings prepared a preliminary LA21 plan, which was later approved
by the Visaginas municipality board of
administration. A support letter for the plan was also received from Ministry
of Economy. The preliminary LA 21 does not call for the development of a new
reactor (as some EU and Lithuanian government officials have proposed), but
plans for the town to become totally non-nuclear and develop high-tech and
alternative energy technologies. |
Promotion of LA21 plan. |
A
community initiative group was formed which works on the further development
of the LA21 plan and which attempts to interest more Visaginas
inhabitants in the sustainable development of the town. For instance, in
October of 2001, the Visaginas Community
Development Council, which was established as a result of ECOLOGIA's NGO
training seminars, organized a seminar entitled "The role of the public
in the management of the development of the Ignalina
NPP region". |
Integrate LA21 plan into other local and regional
strategic plans to ensure implementation. Rally political support on the
highest local and regional levels for the use of sustainable development
planning. |
Two
separate workshops for both representatives of the |
Implementation of the Visaginas LA21 plan. In order for a LA21
plan to become reality, it needs to be implemented. In Visaginas, the
implementation process was stalled because key decisions about the future of
the Ignalina nuclear power plant – and therefore
the town’s future - needed to be made at the federal government level. This political uncertainty temporarily
stalled the LA21 process. |
The Lithuanian national governmental delayed making a final decision about the dates for decommissioning the Ignalina nuclear power plant. The delay in the decision caused tension, disappointment and a temporary apathy in Visaginas. That mood caused the stagnation of the LA 21 implementation process in the city, since it would be difficult to work on plans for the future when some crucial decisions needed to be made by others. After the government decided to close the second reactor by 2009, the political situation became much clearer. Now Visaginas NGOs, Municipality members and representatives from the nuclear plant are ready to work on creating new strategic plan for the town’s future. Implementation of a new LA 21 for Visaginas is planned after prepared document should be approved by the Visaginas Town Council in December 2002. |
Method
2: Visaginas NGOs capacity building
|
|
Goals |
Methods |
Strengthen citizens
organizations in Visaginas so that they are:
|
ECOLOGIA held a series of two-day long workshops for
Visaginas NGOs leaders between the fall of
2000-spring 2001. Main subjects: Strategic planning of NGOs activities,
preparation of grant proposals, legislation for NGOs, public relations,
taxation. Through
grant-writing and fundraising support and consultations on a variety of
organizational development topics, ECOLOGIA continues to support the
development of Visaginas NGOs. |
4.4 Future plans
Local
Agenda 21. Support
the formation and adoption of the official Strategy of Visaginas
Development, promotion of the ideas to the wide lays of the Visaginas
community and implementation of the LA21 development plan with the involvement
of all stakeholders. This will provide
new jobs and create a vision for a sustainable town. Coordination of LA21
process and governmental INPP region development plan to ensure that
locally-initiated LA21 plan is integrated into other government planning
structures.
NGO
Support. Continue
to strengthen NGO involvement and public participation in decision-making about
Ignalina NPP and Visaginas'
future. Prepare NGOs to be better able to effectively deal with the social
problems resulting from the closure of Ignalina NPP.
NGOs capacity building oriented towards youth NGOs.
Coordination.
Coordinate with other institutional structures working in Visaginas
in order to avoid money lost and assure that the region gets a maximum possible
support in the process of de-nuclearisation. Increase cooperation between institutional
structures to strengthen each institution’s work and to avoid duplication of
work.
Integration.
Support the integration of Visaginas
residents into
5. Local Agenda 21 in Nuclear Regions Program
The project “Mitigation of
Social Consequences in the Period of INPP Decommissioning” is a part of a
broader international ECOLOGIA program called “Local Agenda 21 in Nuclear
Regions.” This program is also carried out in
6. ECOLOGIA
ECOLOGIA is a
private, non-profit international organization which works to solve ecological
problems at the local, regional, national and global levels. ECOLOGIA has offices in Lithuania,
7. Contact information
ECOLOGIA Baltic Programs office |
Updated November 2004