May 5, 2018 Vaive parish (Cēsis district) – everybody was invited to the open day event of LIFE Viva Grass project, held in the frame of the annual info campaign “Day in country side”.

LIFE Viva Grass project experts from Baltic Environmental Forum-Latvia and Cēsis municipality offered various activities to inform, involve and educate about the grassland provides ecosystem services.

Participants had a chance to find out about the 10 benefits provided by the grasslands for people. After the informative introduction and small test participants were invited to vote for the most important benefit.

Also, informative and interactive lecture about importance of grassland ecosystems for nature and humans was held – how do grasslands historically formed in Latvia, why it is so necessary to cooperate with nature to have grasslands, why grasslands and meadows are so important and how to manage them.  Afterward the gained knowledge and the ingeniousness was tested in the questions-answers game and the winner of each round get nice present – honey, grass seeds, tea of cotton bag.  Youngest participants had an opportunity to fill the cross word about the plants and put the puzzle with the meadow picture.

At the very end of the day the most attractive and motivated participants gained new practical knowledge by trying out the “plant plugin” method – specially prepared grass and flower seedlings were planted outdoors in the local Vaive meadow and in that way the biodiversity of the species was potentially improved.

Gallery from the event.