Staff of ECAT-Lithuania
Photo: Algirdas Kairis
The Environmental Centre for Administration and Technology - Lithuania (ECAT - Lithuania) is a support unit for Lithuanian municipalities and organizations in environmental issues. Formally, ECAT is an independent, non-governmental and non- commercial organisation. The office of ECAT is located right in the centre of Kaunas in the same building with the main administration of the city of Kaunas. During the first three years, until late 1999, ECAT will receive financial support from the European Union, the Finnish Ministry of Environment, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and the Bavarian State Ministry for State Development and Environmental Affairs, Germany.
In Lithuania, the main partners of ECAT are the five largest cities: Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipeda, Šiauliai and Panevezys. ECAT is not a unit within the Ministry of Environmental Protection, but it will certainly enjoy favourable cooperation with the Ministry and particularly with its Project Management Unit. One more local cooperation partner for ECAT is the Association of Local Authorities of Lithuania (ALAL). ECAT will mainly be working with activities which belong to the field of environmental section of ALAL.
ECAT Lithuania will have five Lithuanian and four western environmental experts plus one or two supporting office staff working together on a long-term basis. Additionally, some more experts will be hired on short-term contracts. The first three experts who started working with ECAT are Mr Pekka Pietilä from Finland and Ms Audroné Alijosiute and Ms Violeta Kauneliene from Lithuania. Office Manager Ms Vaiva Ramanauskiene joined the group in January 1997. Three more foreign experts from Sweden, Germany and Finland (one from each country) are expected to start around March 1997.
In the beginning, ECAT-Lithuania is concentrating its activities on the five largest Lithuanian cities, which also financially support the operations of ECAT. Later on the activities will be extended to also cover other municipalities.
One of the tasks of ECAT to start working with is the introduction and promotion of Agenda 21 at the municipal level in Lithuania. Other activities include: environmental education, an environmental management course for industry, the development of solid waste collection and recycling systems, the reduction of air pollution and noise problems caused by traffic and small scale waste water treatment. The introduction of Municipal Environmental Auditing would also be a suitable task for ECAT-Lithuania.
For further information, please contact Mr Pekka Pietilä in ECAT-Lithuania, fax: +370 7 206797.
