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The LIFE IP ForEst&FarmLand project participated in the RMK nature conservation conference, which this time focused on the restoration of habitats and populations, with a poster presentation on the restoration of 3,500 ha of deciduous forests in bogs, 100 small bodies of water and 20 coastal meadows.

Much of Estonia's and Europe's biodiversity is linked to agriculture. In addition to production, agricultural landscapes play an important role in preserving our natural environment and everyone’s good health. A healthy field also raises the quality of our diet!

In mid-September a part of our team visited Lithuania under the guidance of the Environmental Board to exchange experiences with the Lithuanian integrated LIFE project NaturaLit (Optimising the management of Natura 2000 network in Lithuania), which is working largely the same way and has a similar objective as our project.

Despite the showers and thunderstorms last week, nature conservation experts from the Environmental Board went to see the invasive species mapped this spring to assess their growth and population. We can now say that these sites have been fully overtaken by invasive species. For example, the tallest measured Japanese knotweed reached a height of four metres. In addition, native species often fail to grow under these expansive colonies.

This week, together with scientists from the Environmental Board and the University of Tartu, the managers of the semi-natural grasslands in Lahemaa assessed the biodiversity of their meadows, along with the ease or difficulty of mowing and grazing, and how the area being cared for and the natural values found there have changed over the years.

The ‘Spot the Invasive Species!’ campaign is still ongoing, in which we are calling on people to report on the wild habitats of four invasive species – knotweeds, the common snowberry, the false spiraea, and goldenrods!

For this year’s Day on Semi-Naturals Species, which took place on 2 July, we organised five different hikes to meadows and floodplain meadows in different parts of Estonia.