In October, specialists of State Service for Protected Areas, Ministry of Environment, Žuvintas Biosphere Reserve, Viešvilė State Nature Reserve and Baltic Environmental Forum Lithuania discussed the principles of how to improve one action specified in agri-environmental measure of Rural Development Programme (RDP) that deals with maintenance of specific meadows.

It is planned to distinguish specific areas among other grasslands according to protected species living there and grassland productivity. In those teritorries more strict requirements – mowing and grazing terms and intensity – should be applied. During the meeting a common principle that tighter regulatory requirements leads to increase of compensation for voluntary commitments was agreed. Experts also made a conclution that the terms of mowing and grazing intensity has a direct impact only on bird species, thus teritories requiring special protection will be set according to its’ (e. g., Great Snipe, Black-tailed Godwit and others) presence. Another result of the meeting was an agreement of criteria on how to set the boundaries of concrete species’ habitats.