Study supported by the Forest Development Fund (agreement No. 26-00-S0MF01-000006)
The aim of Study is to develop proposals for measures to improve the biodiversity of forest ecosystems, using the indicators included in the European Council and Parliament Regulation (EU) 2024/1991 on nature restoration, which amends Regulation (EU) 2022/869.
The tasks of Study are:
- Assess the potential of ecosystem services and their changes in actively managed forests in Latvia.
Within the scope of the work task, the potential of provisioning, regulating, and cultural forest ecosystem services in Latvia will be modeled using indicators that describe forest stands, as well as the changes in the potential of these forest ecosystem services under different forest management scenarios: 1) continuing current practices while meeting the minimum requirements of the Nature Restoration Regulation, 2) continuing current practices while meeting the enhanced requirements of the Nature Restoration Regulation, and 3) targeted (intensive) forest management while meeting the enhanced requirements of the Nature Restoration Regulation. Based on the results, the forest ecosystem services whose potential depends most on the intensity of forest management will be identified. - Describe approaches for determining the monetary value of forest ecosystem services, collect additional data on the more complex-to-assess ecosystem services, and describe methods for using the monetary values obtained with different approaches in decision-making.
As part of the work assignment, the advantages and disadvantages of methods used to determine the monetary value of ecosystem services will be gathered, additional data on habitat-providing and cultural services will be collected, and proposals will be prepared for choosing methods to assess the monetary value of forest ecosystem services in different decision-making contexts.