Interreg VI-A Estonia-Latvia Programme Subsidy Contract for the implementation No. 11.1-13/23/318-1
Project duration: three years, from 1.01.2024. to 31.12.2026.
Total budget is 928 500,00 EUR, incl. ERDF funding 742 800,00 EUR, Republic of Latvia funding 86 000,00 EUR and partners' funding 99 700,00 EUR.
Project partners are Latvian State Forest Research Institute "Silava" (leading partner), JSC Latvia's State Forests, Latvian Forest Owners' Association, Estonian University of Life Sciences and Sihtasutus Loodushoiu Fond (Estonia).
In the last three decades, the change in people's living habits (abandonment of natural farming, moving to cities, intensification of agriculture) has contributed to the overgrowth of riverbanks. This most often happens with gray alder stands that have problems with nutrient uptake and sediment flow. The eutrophication and sedimentation in rivers show the inefficiency of environmental laws and the existing management approach of riparian forests. Establishing riparian forest management based on an ecosystem services approach can help owners make decisions that help increase the value of various ecosystem services in forest and river ecosystems.
The main task of the RiForMa project would be to recognize and value the diverse ecosystem services in riparian forests without prioritizing any single one of the services. By evaluating individual ecosystem services and predicting the impact of different management (including non-management) alternatives on them, the change in overall ecosystem service values can be predicted. Also reducing existing negative processes (sedimentation, eutrophication, nutrient leakage, etc.) would be particularly important.
The main output of the Project will be the development of a decision-making support tool, which includes models and algorithms for evaluating ecosystem services, which will provide support to riparian landowners (foresters, farmers, locals). Society as a whole will benefit from the realization of the project's goals. By cooperating with Estonian and Latvian forest scientists, forest owners, and IT specialists, with various experiences (also in other sectors), and knowledge (ecosystem assessment, implementation of e-solutions in legislation), we can find a solution necessary to solve the mentioned problem. The ecosystem service evaluation tool developed in the project is planned to be integrated into the forest management platform LVM GEO.
The Project objective is to develop the ecosystem service evaluation tool with integration into the forest management platform LVM GEO – an easy-to-use tool for riparian forest owners, where they can model future scenarios on their property, offering different management alternatives.
The project envisages several activities aimed at creating awareness and educating the public and the target audience:
- Creation of demonstration areas, which will demonstrate the management of riparian forests in nature, based on the assessment of ecosystem services, which the developed project solution – the LVM GEO tool – will help the forest owners to perform.
- Seminars and demonstration days in nature (in demonstration territories) will be organized to introduce the use of IT solutions in forest management. The practical applicability of the tool in forest management in riparian forests and how it will improve decision-making will be explained. Owners will be able to try the new IT solutions and compare their functionality with demonstration areas in nature using their phones and the existing LVM GEO application.
- Guidelines will be drawn up – training materials on riparian forest management – use of the LVM GEO tool, which can be used as self-study material.