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The park was established after receiving 341.2 thousand LTL (98.8 thousand euros) of aid from the EU in October 2014. Trails, benches and wooden sculptures are installed behind it. Under the grant rules, the forest owner had to maintain the recreational park for five years.
Therefore, this year, near the entrance to the park, visitors are greeted by a table that is a private property, and the owner can burn all the wooden sculptures.
This private forest recreation park is one of many in Lithuania.
15 minutes He repeatedly wrote about hard-to-reach EU-funded parks, which rumble without visitors because sometimes they are not even referred to. It is suspected that it is more important that homeowners absorb EU support, but their availability is not important. The Ministry of Agriculture has already suspended EU support for such purposes, and experts say these equipped parks have done more harm than good.
The documents show that the forest owner Juozas Kaziukonis received support six years ago.
Entertainment is no longer available.
“Welcome”: The wooden arch next to the parking lot greets you, and the stands next to it say that everything here was done for the money of the European Union.
Photo “You don’t feel at home” / Dačionys Recreational Park
Europe is investing in rural areas, and the objective of this investment is to adapt the forest plot to recreation.
The functional park was found and described last year by the authors of the blog “Don’t Sit at Home”, its story was published and 15 minutes. They were also surprised that the park was difficult to find, although the park was equipped with swings, slides, and stairs. There were even hours of work here, but now it is no longer necessary to enter the park, a private farm.
Daučionys park is closed
There may not be many recreational parks established with EU support that later became private properties. Dozens of private forest owners received support in 2014, so they can now do whatever they want with their territory. The worst thing is that, according to the naturalist Andrejus Gaidamavičius, the owners do not allow anything to enter these territories, although the public has the right to visit the forests. But here the forests have already become private parks.
No one checks the parks after a while
These projects are administered and audited by the National Paying Agency (NPA), with a control period of five years.
The NMA information portal is being used by more and more beneficiaries. noriufoto.lt’s picture
“At the end of the control period and the applicant’s obligations, the NMA has no legal possibility to continue with the controls and inspections. Forest owners should take care of the additional maintenance of these places, “says the ministry.
Public figure A. Gaidamavičius says a mistake was made when the EU’s investments in recreation were not tied to documents that mark all recreational areas.
Sigismund Gedvila photo / 15min / Andrew Gaidamavičius
“As a result, millions of euros of the Rural Development Program have been wasted in creating all kinds of educational trails on private forest farms with extremely poor commitment from the owners, that is. allow the public to use those roads only for 5 years, “said A. Gaidamavičius.
In his observation, part of the trails were created in the wrong places, ignorant and possibly money laundering. “During those 5 years, they did not play the role of cognitive pathways,” said the public figure, who had repeatedly fought deforestation in the Labanoras forest.
The Ministry of Agriculture states in its comment that “this support measure was intended to encourage and help install more recreation and entertainment venues in Lithuania,” but the ministry says it does not collect information on previously established parks.
Can no one enter the forest?
Support for the establishment of such parks was suspended last year after 15 minutes publications, but what will be previously installed? Their subsequent fate may be different, says A. Gaidamavičius.
“Some simply abandoned and grew bushes, the owners of other roads and other infrastructure were sold or brought to their home, but most concerning are the cognitive roads, which the owners simply prohibited visiting after those 5 years,” he said.
Forest owners, he said, have enacted a ban on visiting a private forest farm, although the law requires that all forests be open to the public, regardless of the form of ownership.
“EU donors must take responsibility for this,” he said.
In some places, under the guise of strong supporting names, the forest ecosystem was destroyed, the forests where those roads were created were so thin that the trees are now collapsing in the winds.
Visiting is not prohibited, but cannot be used.
Algis Gaižutis, Chairman of the Board of the Lithuanian Association of Forest and Land Owners, recalls that visiting forests, both private and public, is free, except in cases established by law, when visits are prohibited.
“If infrastructure, buildings, etc. are installed, they will normally not be used by a decent stranger without the owner’s consent,” he says, adding that a private forest is private property.
A.Gaižutis also agrees that errors were made in the distribution of support. According to him, bureaucrats have been unable to understand how to increase the availability of recreational venues, in addition, some real estate developers have been able to increase the value of property in this way.
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