Nordic-Baltic LIFE Platform project meeting

This year, the Nordic-Baltic LIFE Platform Project Meeting took place in Riga from 16 to 18 September, bringing together more than 100 participants from nearly 40 LIFE projects currently being implemented in Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Denmark, Finland and Sweden.

The aim of the meeting was to promote the exchange of experience and cooperation opportunities between LIFE projects implemented in different countries as an important part of the LIFE Programme. A particular focus of this year’s meeting was the sharing of experiences of LIFE projects on stakeholder involvement and participation. Experts from the European Executive Agency for Climate, Infrastructure and Environment CINEA and the financial monitoring ELMEN were also present at the event and shared useful information on current technical and financial issues of LIFE projects.

During the three days, there was an opportunity to learn about the LIFE Programme, get to know other projects, work in thematic groups on forests, grasslands and water, and experience first-hand the activities implemented by Latvian LIFE projects in the field through short and longer excursions. This is a great opportunity for projects to meet each other, present their project and its activities, and gain valuable knowledge and experience from projects working on similar themes. The LIFE IS SALACA project was represented at the event by the Nature Conservation Agency project team.

In particular, many water-related projects are currently being implemented in Sweden, such as LIFE IP Rich Waters, Ecostreams for Life, Rivers of Life, Grip on Life IP. These cover a wide range of activities – restoring natural river courses and wetlands, removing obstacles, improving and creating spawning grounds, improving species and habitats, implementing the Priority Action Programme and River Basin District Management Plans.

It was particularly useful for the project team to learn about the experiences of these projects and to learn about the different river management measures and communication practices implemented. The knowledge gained will also be useful for the implementation of the LIFE IS SALACA project activities, such as the development of the nature plan for the Natura 2000 site “Salaca Valley”, the identification of necessary measures to improve the hydromorphological quality of rivers, the restoration of stream channels, as well as for informing about the project activities and organising various events to promote public participation.