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It is planned to achieve the following outcomes within the frame of Phase 2 of the Project „Local capacity building in pilot areas (PA) in the Nīca municipality of the Liepāja district and in the Svēte and Glūda municipalities of the Jelgava district”: - To consolidate sustainable land management practice by undertaking the following activities:
- To involve farmers, landowners and land users of pilot areas in the project implementation process;
- To undertake the study of the land quality in pilot areas and to assess risks of land degradation manifestation types;
- To develop various potential land management scenarios, to prepare an assessment of costs and benefits, including the assessment of social –economic consequences for management models as well as proposals for their use in specific conditions in pilot areas;
- To develop a draft land lease agreement and to test it in practice;
- To test sustainable land management models in specific farmsteads;
- To develop a land management plan for each municipality in pilot areas.
- Collation of results and distribution for their further replication in Latvia.
Activities
Involvement of representatives of pilot areas
One of the most essential prerequisites for the achievement of the objective identified in the Phase of the Project is the involvement of local land users and decision-makers in the implementation of the Project. Thus the Project will acquire the necessary support for Project stock-taking and inventory activities, for example, the provision of data about farmsteads for the assessment of changes in the agrochemical features of the soil and the participation of specific farmsteads in testing formulated land management models and activities.
Stock-taking and inventory of pilot areas
In pilot areas the soil quality will studies and land degradation manifestation types (water and wind erosion, compaction, acidification, various types of soil pollution etc.) will be assessed. The risk assessment has been started in the middle of 2006 and it is undertaken in two different regions – in the Nīca municipality with an artificially developed polder system and Svēte and Glūda municipalities in the Jelgava district with intensively used agricultural land. The assessment will be performed by conducting agricultural work and a survey of farmsteads as well as analyzing collated data at the disposal of various institutions.
The acquired results will be used for the justification of specific land management measures focused on retaining the land quality. The digital soil map will be used in stock-taking - it is planned that the mapping data base will contain all information that is required for land management – related decision-making at the local and national level.
The analysis of various land management scenarios will justify their utilization options in a specific place from the point of cost-efficiency as well as from the social – economic point of view, assisting decision-makers in taking knowledge-based decisions.
The involvement of land users and the analysis of the current mechanisms for stimulating land management activities are necessary to assess the efficiency of these mechanisms in the country and to promote the development of sustainable land management practice, for example, to stimulate the national support to the cultivation of long-term grassland to maintain soil quality. It is planned to test sustainable land management mechanisms (farmer cooperation, lease agreements, land management models) on farmsteads of the specific pilot area.
Land management plan
Results of stock-taking and inventory activities will use in developing a land management plan for each municipality in pilot areas. The land management plan will encompass specific proposals for land management that will be based on results of research and analysis in pilot areas.
Collation of Project experience for its replication elsewhere in Latvia
Results acquired in the course of stock-taking and inventory (management scenarios preserving land quality and a sample land lease agreement, the digital soil map and the data base etc.) as well as conclusions reached in the course of their implementation will summarized according to a specific replication plan to ensure the continuation of activities undertaken in the course of implementing the Phase in other districts of Latvia. |
