December 2, 2017. By carrying on the series of meetings with Madliena parish stakeholder core group this time the meeting was held with the aim to discuss ecosystem service significance on human welfare.

Project partner – University of Latvia, Faculty of Geography and Earth Sciences – hosted the event in their premises and project expert Raimonds Kasparinskis held the opening speech. Afterwards project expert Kristīna Veidemane from Baltic Environmental Forum-Latvia presented the results of previous informative seminars of ecosystem service assessment using participatory GIS approaches and her colleague Anda Ruskule  presented the importance of the grasslands ecosystem on human welfare. Afterwards participants were invited to discuss the main factors impacting the grassland management in Madliena and in Latvia.

Later on project researcher Ivo Vinogradovs from University of Latvia presented the study held in the frame of the LIFE Viva Grass project about the land agriculture land to abandonment and how integrated planning tool could serve for grassland maintenance.

Finally Raimonds Kasparinskis also presented some interesting research aspects of Madliena parish within framework of LIFE Viva Grass project, told a little bit about the Academic center for Natural Sciences and invited participants to the short excursion in the building.

Pictures from the event.