On June 17, 2020, the first Lithuanian LIFE OrgBalt national workshop on climate change mitigation measures for nutrient-rich organic soils took place in a webinar format. The workshop was organized by Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry (LAMMC), partner in LIFE OrgBalt project.
Agenda and presentations of the national workshop in Lithuania can be found HERE.
LIFE OrgBalt national coordinator in Lithuania, Dr. Kęstutis Armolaitis (LAMMC) opened the workshop welcoming participants. The workshop started with introductory presentation about the project’s scope and main objectives by Ieva Līcīte (SILAVA), coordinator of the project. Aleksejs Nipers (Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies) revealed the functional land management for climate change mitigation. Vaiva Kazanavičiutė and Kęstutis Armolaitis, (LAMMC) introduced with LIFE OrgBalt activities in Lithuania and climate change mitigation targeted management practices on organic soils identified by the project. Nerijus Zableckis, leader of the project LIFE Peat Restore (Lithuanian Fund for Nature) informed about project outcomes and links with LIFE OrgBalt.
“The national workshop was dedicated to stakeholders on purpose to reveal the project aim and specific objectives. LIFE OrgBalt will promote decision making approach that adopts land use management practices based not solely on their climate change mitigation benefits but rather based on whole “production systems analysis” that comprehensively assesses the productivity, resource use, and environmental load of the system including climate benefits. Stakeholder engagement is unequivocally the most important ingredient for successful project delivery,” says Dr. Olgirda Belova, LAMMC, Department of Forest Protection, LIFE OrgBalt expert.
Attendees of the workshop represented the main Lithuanian project stakeholders: The Ministry of Environment, The Ministry of Agriculture, State Forest Enterprise, Forest Stewardship Council FSC, Forest Owners Association of Lithuania (FOAL), Lithuanian Foresters’ Union, The Lithuanian Fund for Nature, Kaunas Forestry and Environmental Engineering University of Applied Sciences KMAIK, Vytautas Magnus University Agriculture Academy and the project participants of Latvian State Forest Research Institute SILAVA, Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies and NGO BaltCoasts.
At the end of the workshop, participants were invited to complete the evaluation questionnaire using the online tool Mentimeter.
Within LIFE OrgBalt project in total 10 national workshops are planned in partner countries – Germany, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania (two workshops in each country). The workshops are planned to gather stakeholders – governmental institutions, research organizations, farmers etc. in order to inform about the LIFE OrgBalt project, planned activities and results. The first workshop in each country will be held in the first half of 2020. Taking into consideration the restrictions introduced internationally due to 2019-nCoV outbreak the first LIFE OrgBalt workshops will be held in webinar format.
The LIFE OrgBalt project’s “Demonstration of climate change mitigation potential of nutrients rich organic soils in Baltic States and Finland” (LIFE18 CCM/LV/001158) main objectives are measurements of greenhouse gas emissions from managed nutrients rich organic soils on agricultural and forest lands in a Cool Temperate Moist climate zone and elaboration of emission factors as well as research and implementation of climate change mitigation measures.
LIFE OrgBalt is being implemented by Latvian State Forest Research Institute “Silava” in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Latvia, Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies, University of Tartu (Estonia), Natural Resources Institute Finland LUKE, Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry, Michael Succow Foundation (Germany) and Association Baltic Coasts (Latvia) from 2019 to 2023 and has received funding from the LIFE Programme of the European Union and the State Regional Development Agency of Latvia. More information www.orgbalt.eu
The information reflects only the LIFE OrgBalt project beneficiaries’ view and the European Commission’s Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.
