The work group of the Global Environmental Facility and the United Nations Development Program project invite farmers, land users, responsible municipal officers of the Jelgava district and other interested parties to participate in an open discussion on land quality and other management problems in the premises of the Jelgava district council in 4 July 2006. As the soils of the Lielupe river basin are the most fertile in Latvia and are used for intensive agricultural activity, it is in the Svēte and Glūda municipalities of the Jelgava district that land degradation or the deterioration of the biological potential of the land has been observed, resulting from intensive and unsuitable agricultural activity.

The deterioration of land quality is a crucial problem all over the world that is why the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) finance projects that study the impact of human activity on land quality. The Environment Ministry of Latvia has chosen two different regions – the Nīca municipality with an artificial polder system and the Jelgava district with intensively utilized agricultural land – for the inventory of the land condition and the assessment of land vulnerability and degradation risks within the frame of the project "Building Sustainable Capacity and Ownership to Implement UNCCD objectives in Latvia" (hereinafter in the text – the Project). The term "land" in the meaning of the given Project designates all its landscape components: the vegetation, the soil, the relief and the hydrological systems.

In order to initiate an extensive discussion on land quality and management problems a workshop for the beginning of the inventory of the land condition and the assessment of land vulnerability and degradation risks in 4 July 2006 at 10. a.m. in the premises of the Jelgava District Council in 37 Pasta Street, Jelgava. At the workshop Silvija Kalniņš, the head of the UNDP office in Latvia, will speak about aims of the project, Guntis Tabors, a researcher of the University of Latvia, will discuss types of land degradation. Jānis Eveliņš from the farmstead "Kalna Ķepali" will speak about a topical problem for the Jelgava district – the maintenance of the melioration systems and beavers. Ansis Grantiņš, Executive Director of the "InfoSab Ltd.", will discuss in detail work planned for the Svēte and Glūda municipalities and the potential benefit for land owners.

Data collated by public agencies as well as field observations and laboratory tests, e.g., for establishing agrichemical indicators, will be used in the process of inventory. Farmsteads will be requested to submit only those data that are not collated at present, or for the purpose of reviewing the correctness of available data.

Thus, the implementation of the Project and inventory activities is not possible without the support of farmers and land owners. The first meeting with farmers of the Svēte and Glūda municipalities took place already in 2 June, 2006, Silvija Kalniņš, the head of the project office of the UNDP in Latvia, Sniedze Sproģe, an advisor to the Latvian Union of Local Governments, Jānis Ģērmanis, the project manager and Mairita Zvirgzdiņa, the coordinator of the project division "Local Capacity Building in Pilot Territories in the Nīca Municipality and the Jelgava District", the project manager for the "InfoSab Ltd.", met with Sandra Viniarska, Chairperson of the Svēte Muncipality Council, Lūcija and Edvīns Kalniņi from the farmstead "Kugrēni" in the Svēte municipality , Jānis Eveliņš from the farmstead "Kalna Ķepali" in the Svēte municipality, Ilze Vēja from the farmstead "Ginguļi" in the Svēte municipality, Inta Viniarska from the farmstead "Boļi" in the Svēte and Glūda municipality, Oskars Levics from the farmstead. "Siņķi" in the Glūda municipality, Arnis Burmistrs from the farmstead "Vilciņi", Aivars Zagorskis from the farmstead "Klumpji" in the Glūda municipality.