The project “Integrated planning tool to ensure viability of grasslands”  (acronym – LIFE Viva Grass)  aimed to prevent loss of High Nature Value grasslands and increase effectiveness of semi-natural grassland management by developing the Integrating Planning Tool (Tool). The tool based on ecosystem services approach helps to strengthen linkages between social, economic, environmental, agricultural fields and policies in grassland management. Results of the tool helps […]

Project partner: Cēsis municipality

Project partner: Estonian University of Life Sciences

“LIFE Viva Grass” team has collected good examples of viable grassland management from Baltic States, other parts of Europe and the world. Diversification of income Example no. 1: What? Piper Hole farm- five workers (all family members), 200 ha of land of which 30 ha are meadows, in total 400 animals (goats, sheep, pigs and […]

Integrated planning is a planning approach when various different factors are taken into account. We cannot look at the grassland ecosystem only from a nature’s viewpoint. As grasslands survive only in synergy of nature and humans, there are many factors that influence human motivation and possibilities in grassland management. Some of them usually are not […]

Integrated planning tool Integrated planning tool developed within the project aims on helping to make decisions for sustainable grassland management by strengthening linkages between social, economic, environmental, agricultural fields and policies. The tool works on GIS (geographic information system) based environment and incorporates ecosystem services as well as socio-economic parameters.     The Integrated Planning […]

Different grasslands that serve different benefits for people. The management choices made by humans impact the types, magnitude, and the relative mix of services provided by ecosystems. These are called ecosystem service trade-offs, which accrue when provision of one ecosystem service is reduced because of increased use of another service. Also the grassland management practices […]

Every grassland could create the biggest value from different means of managing it. In order to find the most profitable (profit is understood in the concept of ecosystem services) solution, various factors (biological, geographical, socio-economic and etc.) should be taken into account. LIFE Viva Grass project has chosen 9 case study areas (3 in each […]

Publications Short publication about ecosystems, its’ goods and services by European Commission, 2009 Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Services by European Commission, 2016 Scientific publication  “Methodology for coastal ecosystem valuation for facilitation of decision making processes”: summary, poster, 2014 Scienitific publication “Necessity of mapping and assessment of ecosystems and their services in planning […]

Grasslands have a potential for energy production as solid biomass heating fuels. Whether grasslands are specifically cultivated for this purpose, or the grass mown from permanent and semi-natural meadows is used, grass can be burnt in co-fired plants for heat generation. In many cases, the use of grass bales for heating is a feasible alternative […]

The ecosystem services (ES) matrix is used to assess the potential supply of ES of agroecosystems following an expert-based qualitative evaluation. Essentially, the ES matrix presents the grassland and arable land classes on the rows (see Viva Grass basemap) and the ES under evaluation on the columns. Once the matrix is constructed, the experts evaluate […]

Habitat bundle (aggregated data) How was it created? Create sum of ES belonging to habitat bundle, convert to raster using created field as value field, run zonal statistics as table on 5 km grid. Create 3 categories of belongingness of grid cells to bundle by using “natural brakes (jenks)” What is shown by the layer? […]

Cold/hotspots of ecosystem services’ supply (aggregated data) How was it created? Create mean of ES cold/hot spot value, convert to raster using created field as value field, run zonal statistics as table on 5km grid. Create 5 categories of values of grid cells to using “natural brakes (jenks)” What is shown by the layer? Level […]

Here you can find several layers of protected areas of Europe: http://discomap.eea.europa.eu/Index/Services.aspx?agsID=9&fID=5481