Vidzeme seeks residents’ help to preserve biodiversity

Vidzeme Planning Region is encouraging residents to become involved in preserving biodiversity through the international Erasmus+ BioUp project, LSM reports. The project brings together partners from Latvia, Portugal, Spain and Italy.

Biodiversity is currently disappearing as a result of human activity faster than ever before. Although more people are recognising the importance of nature, there is still a lack of knowledge and practical opportunities to help protect it.

Each participating country has selected a biologically valuable territory where nature conservation is closely connected with people’s daily lives and economic activity. In Latvia, the selected territory is the North Vidzeme Biosphere Reserve.

The project will also create a digital database of local flora and fauna in each partner country. Residents of Vidzeme are being invited to help identify the species most characteristic of the region and contribute to the development of its digital species database.

According to Zane Pīpkalēja, a project expert at Vidzeme Planning Region, the database is intended to help residents become more familiar with the biodiversity around them and understand its importance.

Biological species expert Mārtiņš Kalniņš said Augstroze hillfort reflects the richness of the North Vidzeme landscape. Within a relatively small area, it is possible to see a lake, forest, moor and grasslands, which are home to various plant, insect and animal species.

Alongside species found in many parts of Latvia, Vidzeme also has rarer natural values. These include the sand toad, found in North Vidzeme only around Karateri, and the yellow lady’s slipper orchid.

North Vidzeme may have one of Latvia’s largest, if not the largest, concentrations of lady’s slipper orchids. The concentration begins near Tūja and stretches in a narrow line to the Estonian border.

Another rare plant is the gladiolus, which in North Vidzeme is found only around Ainaži, in the Randu meadows.