The Project seminar in the forest

The project “Forest Habitat Restoration within the Gauja National Park (FOR-REST)” LIFE10 NAT/LV/000159 seminar literally took place in the forest. During the seminar IES’s head of environmental department Gatis Eriņš and researcher Rūta Abaja talked about IES’s accomplishments in 2014 and planned project activities in 2015.

The seminar took place of three different location of the Gauja National Park. The first meeting point was in Gulbjusalas Bog where nature conservation specialists heard about our efforts in preparation of hydrologoy restoration programme and planning activities for restoring the hydrological regime and habitats, as well as the monitoring of vegetation and hydrological regime.  The following talk was held in Lenčupe nature reserve, where the most important activities for restoration of EU priority habitat Western taiga (9010*) and management planning were outlined. The event concluded in the picturesque Ungurmuiža Park, where participants learnt how to create a suitable habitat for the endangered Hermit beetle (Osmoderma eremita).

The project activities foreseen 2015 will include continuing the vegetation and hydrology data monitoring.  In addition, the airborne remote sensing data collection and analysis for evaluation of the structure of tree crowns within the project area will be carried out.

The seminar was attended by more than 20 nature conservation specialists and policy makers. In addition to IES’s experts Jānis Andrušaitis, the project management coordinator; Viesturs Lārmanis, Latvia Fund for Nature expert on forest environments and Guntis Zaķis, the representative for the project’s hydrological restoration technical work shared their experiences of the project so far.

The project is being implemented with EU LIFE+ Nature and Biodiversity Programme’s financial support.

More about the project.