{"id":6508,"date":"2022-09-06T17:23:34","date_gmt":"2022-09-06T14:23:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.daivarepeckaite.com\/?page_id=6508"},"modified":"2023-02-01T20:58:10","modified_gmt":"2023-02-01T18:58:10","slug":"chainsaw-landscaping-collaborative-project-on-biodiversity-funding-used-to-cut-trees-in-trakai","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.daivarepeckaite.com\/en\/media-portfolio\/chainsaw-landscaping-collaborative-project-on-biodiversity-funding-used-to-cut-trees-in-trakai\/","title":{"rendered":"Chainsaw Landscaping: collaborative project on biodiversity funding used to cut trees in Trakai"},"content":{"rendered":"

After releasing her documentary<\/a> on substandard care of urban trees in winter 2021, Lithuanian documentary maker Elena Reimeryt\u0117 received a flood of messages from activists around Lithuania, saying that their towns are losing mature trees without anyone paying much attention nationally. But Elena\u2019s slow, Spalvos<\/i>, could only dedicate so much time to this topic. I introduced her to Vaida Pilibaityt\u0117, one of the hosts of award-winning radio shows, one of which is solely dedicated to environmental issues, to see how the material can be shared with other teams. One case in particular caught our eye \u2014 trees in Trakai, a protected area, were being felled as part of a project that was financed using EU funds dedicated to biodiversity.<\/p>\n

\"Trakai

Trakai drone photo by \u017dygimantas Abromavi\u010dius<\/p><\/div>\n

Trees are essential for biodiversity, so we had a conflict and narrative tension right there. The question was, who approved this project and how come nobody saw the clash between the declared objectives of the funding scheme (measure) and Trakai municipality\u2019s plans. The people we talked to offered various hypotheses: corruption, incompetence, informal dealings within the political party that rules both Trakai and the Ministry of Environment, etc. \u2014 accusations that all involved actors were vehemently refuting. It would take a long time to comb through piles of documents and reconstruct this project\u2019s paper trail.<\/p>\n

Just then, Media4Change announced a call for grants for local journalists to collaborate on investigations across newsrooms. These grants are quite unique and precious, because they promote the culture of cooperation nationally. There are plenty of opportunities to collaborate with journalists across borders, but collaborations within countries are rarely encouraged. We decided to apply for this grant and were successful. For many months of 2021, we read loads of documents, interviewed activists and officials, chased the contractors and struggled with the immense task of explaining all of this in an accessible manner.<\/p>\n

\"Tree

Tree cutting plans in Trakai \u2014 illustration by Algirdas Mitrofanas<\/p><\/div>\n

And here are the results:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Article in English in EUObserver<\/a><\/p>\n

Article in Lithuanian in Nara<\/a><\/p>\n

Documentary<\/a> on LRT\u2019s show Spalvos <\/i>(in Lithuanian)<\/p>\n

A two-part documentary series on LRT\u2019s radio show Radijo dokumentika<\/i> (first part<\/a>, second part<\/a>, both in Lithuanian, but there are English subtitles<\/a>) \u2014 nominated for Prix Europa 2022<\/p>\n

\"Prix

Prix Europa nomination<\/p><\/div>\n

Article in Bendra.lt<\/a><\/p>\n

Follow-up on Vienkartin\u0117 planeta <\/i><\/a>(in Lithuanian)<\/p>\n

Article<\/a> in English in Green European Journal<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After releasing her documentary on substandard care of urban trees in winter 2021, Lithuanian documentary maker Elena Reimeryt\u0117 received a flood of messages from activists around Lithuania, saying that their towns are losing mature trees without anyone paying much attention nationally. But Elena\u2019s slow, Spalvos, could only dedicate so much time to this topic. I introduced her to Vaida Pilibaityt\u0117, … <\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6513,"parent":1367,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-6508","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daivarepeckaite.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daivarepeckaite.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daivarepeckaite.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daivarepeckaite.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daivarepeckaite.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6508"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.daivarepeckaite.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6610,"href":"https:\/\/www.daivarepeckaite.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6508\/revisions\/6610"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daivarepeckaite.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1367"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daivarepeckaite.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daivarepeckaite.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}