Conservation of seminatural grasslands in Latvia

More than 60 pasture owners, nature specialists and other interested parties from all over Latvia gathered at the practical workshop “Meadows are Created in Autumn” in Kemeri National Park to share their experience of sowing seeds of wild plants to restore botanically valuable meadows. For the fourth year in a row, participants have been sowing seeds of wild plants collected from natural meadows in the Dunduri meadows of the Ķemeri National Park to restore the lost diversity of meadow plant species.

It took five years to survey 1.3 million hectares of land during the 2017 to 2021 census.
The census showed that forests and meadows are in critically poor condition.

The census also showed that 10% of the territory of Latvia is occupied by biotopes of European significance, that is, important for the natural diversity of Europe and therefore protected natural areas.

During the census alone, about 4,000 hectares of forest biotopes were lost over five years.
One of the biotopes that is under threat is natural meadow grass.
In Latvia, they are mainly located in the Vidzeme Upland, in eastern Latgale, Selia and in the meadows in the Lielupe floodplain. Overall, natural grass stands to occupy only 0.7% of the country's area.

For the first time in Latvia, a census of natural objects has begun.
A calculation of Latvia’s natural resources showed that only one in five of the country has biologically valuable meadows.

During the calculation of natural resources, experts examined almost 57 thousand hectares of rural areas in search of biologically valuable meadows. Only 22% of meadow areas are recognized as meeting the criteria of the European program for the protection of meadow biotopes.

More than 7200 ha of semi-natural grasslands in Latvia have been restored since 2000.  41 projects funded by the LIFE program are implemented in Latvia, 15 of which deal with the restoration of grassland habitats. Grasslands have also been restored within several projects financed from other funds, such as the Latvian Environmental Protection Fund and the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument.

Latvia started a project to map terrestrial ecosystems with the support of the EU Cohesion Fund. The key objective is to gain information on the extent and quality of habitats of EU importance.

EU accession shifted Latvian priorities towards a European-centred approach to nature conservation. Major changes were made to legislation to transpose EU directives. The establishment of Natura 2000 sites increased the profile of biodiversity conservation, which was also strengthened by specific requirements on environmental impact assessment. 

The vegetation monitoring was commenced in the dry grasslands of the Slutišķi village in a 15 ha large area. Three permanent transects in two different plant communities were established. The first transect was placed in the Koeleria glauca community (in total, eight 1 m2  plots). The second and the third transects were located in the Centaurea scabiosa-Agrimonia Eupatoria community (in total, 15 1 m2
 plots). 

Latvia government adopted the Law of Compensation for Restriction on Economic Activities in Protected Areas. In addition, there are payments for maintaining biodiversity in biological grasslands and preservation of genetic resources of farming animals.

Problems with meadows in Latvia began at the end of the 20th century, especially in the post-Soviet period. Exact years may vary, but serious problems such as grassland degradation, loss of biodiversity and changes in land use patterns began to emerge especially in the 1990s.

These problems were mainly caused by agricultural intensification, land abandonment and changes in land use practices following Latvia's independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.