The environmental census implemented by the Nature Conservation Agency (NCA) resulted in the detection of biologically valuable grasslands in more than 5,000 land properties of Latvia, Ilze Reinika, the assistant of environmental census manager, said.
NCA has forwarded informative letters to the owners of these properties. Reinika emphasized that the census did not include all grasslands of Latvia, but the historically known biologically valuable and sustainable grasslands that have not been ploughed and sown have been selected for the census. Thus, it could be expected that, pursuant to a careful selection, any of the surveyed grasslands could be identified as a biologically valuable grassland. Unfortunately to note, though, the data of all three seasons bear evidence that biologically valuable grasslands occur in less than one fifth of the grasslands surveyed during the environmental census, which covered approximately 230,000 hectares of grasslands.
To promote the preservation of biologically diverse grasslands by maintaining the populations of wild plants, insects and birds, the owners and managers of biologically valuable grasslands may apply for the support payments of the Rural Support Service by assuming multiple-year liabilities, if the area of biologically valuable grasslands is at least one hectare.
Information source: TVNET, LETA