Green lessons on riparian forests in schools in Limbaži Municipality

This spring, within the LIFE IS SALACA project, Mārcis Saklaurs, lead riparian forest expert at the Latvian State Forest Research Institute “Silava”, visited schools in Limbaži Municipality. He visited the schools in Pāle and Staicele, as well as the Ainaži branch of Salacgrīva Secondary School, to talk about the activities of the project “Adaptation of Water Framework Directive and Habitats Directive harmonization and integrated actions for freshwater quality improvement in Salaca river sub catchment”.

Although the project name is complicated, Mārcis Saklaurs’ lectures were informative, easy to understand and based on practical examples. He explained to the pupils what riparian forests are, why they need to be protected, how they help to provide cleaner water and what rules apply to the protection zones of surface water bodies.

The expert stressed that one of the most significant problems is overmature stands, in which trees collapse and fall into rivers, creating obstacles to the water flow, contributing to bank erosion and changing the course of rivers. But Mārcis Saklaurs also has solutions: the legal framework needs to be improved, including by drafting a new Protection Zone Law, an ecosystem services approach that does not set different benefits of nature against each other needs to be introduced, and decision support tools for riparian forest management need to be developed.

Inta Soma, nature expert at the “Ziemeļvidzeme” Nature Education Centre of the Nature Conservation Agency, also involved the pupils in practical activities.

These school visits were a valuable opportunity for both pupils and teachers to get to know the diversity of Latvian nature, understand its importance and learn how to protect and manage it wisely.