Nature conservation in the Teichi area
On May 24 - the European Day of Parks, at the information centre of the Administration of Teichi Nature Reserve, the closing seminar of the LIFE-Nature programme project Measures to ensure the nature conservation management of Teici Area took place. The seminar was opened by the project manager and the director of the Teichi Nature Reserve Juris Jātnieks. He informed those present about the main results and conclusions from the nearly 4 year long (October, 2001 May, 2005) implementation of this LIFE project. Using the funds of 834000 allocated from the LIFE-Nature programme it became clear to the administration, that this programme is one of the few seen in the dawn of this century that let the money flow to the people in rural areas (land owners that mowed the meadows, and those who sold land to the reserve). Another informal conclusion was that financial support from the state budget could be obtained in case something needed to be saved urgently (therefore the data often had to be inflated) while in this project we had funding for normal work.
The project manager also recalled the words of the head of Madona district council Andrejs Ceļapīters in 2001 This project developed by you [the TNR] and accepted by LIFE currently is the largest investment in the whole Madona district. The situation in 2005 has already changed, of course.
Juris Jātnieks also stressed the main benefits to the society from the implementation of the project. One of the main benefits to the municipalities of the region is self-confidence, and the positive recognition in Latvia, and abroad. The faith in possibilities offered by projects and the image of green region as well as EU support and investment opportunities connected with it should also not be underestimated.
For example, by creating the nature park
Aiviekstes paliene the owners of the meadows became able to receive additional
subsidies for biologically valuable grasslands of approximately 80
The results of the Ministry of Environment audit were presented in the closing seminar. All the leaders of project action groups presented their assessment of things accomplished during the project. Anita Namtēva reported about the building of public awareness and development of infrastructure for visitors, Māris Rezgoriņš about the purchases of nearby valuable forest and grassland areas for nature conservation. Gundars Vāveriņš shared his experience on the management of grassland biotopes, while the works for restoration of hydrological regime in Teichi bog was covered by Uģis Bergmanis. Deputy director of Nature Protection Department of the Ministry of Environment Ilona Mendziņa, and Alda Nikodemusa from the external LIFE-Nature monitoring team attended, listened to the presentations and asked questions. Municipality heads of the Teichi region, people from Madona Regional Environmental Board and media representatives were also present.
The newspaper Teiču lapa features summaries from the project action group leaders presentations on pages 2, 3 and 4.
By Inese Elsiņa
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