Water Management in Baltic Forests

Programme 2014 - 2020 INTERREG VB Baltic Sea

Date of latest update: 2023-06-16

Description

Description (EN):

The project aims at tackling problems concerning forestry activities in relation to water quality. Special emphasis is set on clear water, nutrient export and hazardous substances, such as mercury. The project works on three main topics that all have a large impact on water quality: riparian forests, drainage and beaver activity. The project works on three main topics that all have a large impact on water quality: riparian forests, drainage and beaver activity. Riparian forests constitute the areas close to surface waters, and can be also discharge areas for groundwater. Draining and ditch maintenance conducted in an erroneous way have large effects on clear water. Beavers have large impact especially in flat areas and have substantial effects on surface water quality, both positive and negative. However, these activities are linked to each other in the overall landscape. Cooperation among many actors is needed for developing management for protecting water. The project will help these actors help learn from each other and develop and implement best management practises. Initially the project maps scientific knowledge, regulations, guidelines and tools in the Baltic Sea countries. Based on this background information the project will produce tool boxes to reduce the leakage of nutrients and hazardous substances into regional and coastal waters. The tool box produced for managing riparian forests consists of: • new digital maps for management of buffer zones, • developed version of "Blue Targeting" tool for use in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR), • guidelines for management of riparian forests, • a video/film showing the use of GIS data for designing buffer zones, • demonstration areas and training courses for management of riparian forests and for monitoring the impacts of practices. The tool box produced for managing forest drainage areas consist of: • guidelines for managing drainage systems, • a decision support application for mobile devices and for desktops for planning drainage systems, • demonstration areas and training courses for management of drainage areas and for monitoring the impacts of drainage. The tool box produced for managing beavers consist of: • a beaver handbook, "Beaver as a resource", containing information on beaver populations and management needs, as well as country specific legislation and policy, • a decision support tool for classification of beaver dams, • demonstration areas and training courses for management of beavers and for monitoring the impacts of practices. These tool boxes will be tested and used by the project target groups, consisting of national policy makers, forest and environment authorities, private and state owned forest enterprises and NGO's (hunters, environmental, forest owners etc.). The project will finally create the final output of an action plan "Water Management in Baltic Forests". The action plan will give recommendations on how to further implement tools and guidelines to reduce nutrients inflows and decrease discharge of hazardous substances to the Baltic States and the regional waters in the Baltic Sea Region.

Achievements (EN):

New tools for managing forests: National forest and environment ministries and agencies in Lithuania and Sweden, the state-owned forest enterprise that manages one-third of Finland’s land area, and forest institutes in these countries as well as in Latvia and Poland pooled their expertise and experience in the project WAMBAF in order to jointly develop a mobile app tool for maintaining forest drainage systems, a planning tool for riparian forest buffers, and a decision support tool for beaver dams. Over 620 representatives from private and state-owned forest enterprises, forest owners, hunters, and authorities attended training courses to test them directly in the forest and provide feedback on their usability. Over two-thirds of the participants said that these tools would be useful to them in their daily forestry work. These tools can help users balance the various forest management goals, such as producing timber while safeguarding water quality. Demonstration areas: The project set up physical demonstration areas where private and state-owned forest enterprises, forest owners and authorities witnessed good practices in forest water management. These eleven demonstration areas were located in Vengasoja, Finland; Jaunkalsnava, Latvia; Plateliai and Kretinga, Lithuania; Sokolak, Strazalowo (two areas) and Żednia, Poland; and Kungsberget, Tobo, Torringen, and the Helgeå watershed, Sweden. The area in Sokolak, Poland, for example, demonstrated that it is possible to retain drainage water from agricultural areas in mid-forest ponds and assessed the effects of this solution on trees and groundwater quality around the reservoir. The biggest forest enterprise in Sweden, Sveaskog, reached out to the Finnish state-owned forest enterprise Metsähallitus to arrange a visit to the demo area in Vengasoja to learn more about the results developed in WAMBAF. Cleaner waters in forests: With EUR 2.28 million invested by the European Union, the Interreg project WAMBAF not only filled a knowledge gap of water management in forests by creating easy-to-use tools for authorities, planners, forest owners, forest managers and hunters, it introduced the tools to these intended users in 19 training courses around the Baltic Sea. Now the follow-up project WAMBAF Tool Box, puts these tools into practice by training more users to use them. On the demo areas that were already established, Latvian forest managers, machine operators and contractors, and Estonian forest administrators, managers and operators are learning how to use the ditch management application. Lithuanian forest managers and hunters as well as relevant stakeholders from various countries in the region are training how to use the beaver tool, whereas Polish state forest managers are practising the blue targeting tool. http://interreg-baltic.eu/project/wambaf/

Website: http://www.skogsstyrelsen.se/en/wambaf

Delivered Outputs (EN): Toolbox for management of riparian forests Toolbox for maintenance of drainage systems Toolbox for management of beaver population Site description of established demonstration and virtual areas Action plan for water management in Balic forests

Thematic information

Water management Agriculture and fisheries and forestry

Specific Objective: ‘Clear waters’: To increase efficiency of water management for reduced nutrient inflows and decreased discharges of hazardous substances to the Baltic Sea and the regional waters based on enhanced capacity of public and private actors dealing with water quality issues

Thematic Objective: (06) preserving and protecting the environment and promoting resource efficiency by:

Investment Priority: (06b) investing in the water sector to meet the requirements of the Union's environmental acquis and to address needs, identified by the Member States, for investment that goes beyond those requirements

Partners (9)

Lead Partner: SKOGSSTYRELSEN

Department: District Göteborg

Address: Box 343, 501 13 Borås, Sweden

Legal status: public

Website: http://www.skogsstyrelsen.se

Total budget: EUR 653 650.60

ERDF budget: EUR 490 237.95

Luonnonvarakeskus

Name: Luonnonvarakeskus

Department: Management and Production of Renewable Resources

Address: Yliopistokatu 6, 80101 Joensuu, Finland

Legal status: public

Website: http://www.luke.fi

Total budget: EUR 560 000.05

ERDF budget: EUR 420 000.03

Metsähallitus

Name: Metsähallitus

Department: Kestävä kehitys

Address: P.O. Box 94 (Vernissankatu 4), FI-01301 Vantaa, Finland

Legal status: private

Website: http://www.metsa.fi

Total budget: EUR 125 000.00

ERDF budget: EUR 93 750.00

Latvijas valsts mežzinātes institūts Silava

Name: Latvijas valsts mežzinātes institūts Silava

Department: Forest Ecology and Silviculture

Address: Rigas 111, LV-2169 Salaspils, Latvia

Legal status: public

Website: http://www.silava.lv

Total budget: EUR 180 000.00

ERDF budget: EUR 153 000.00

Lietuvos agrarinių ir miško mokslų centras (LAMMC)

Name: Lietuvos agrarinių ir miško mokslų centras (LAMMC)

Department: Institute of Forestry, Lithuanian Research Centre for Africulture and Forestry (LRCAF)

Address: Instituto alėja 1, Akademija, LT-58344 Kėdainiai dirstrict, Lithuania

Legal status: public

Website: http://www.lammc.lt/en/

Total budget: EUR 240 000.00

ERDF budget: EUR 204 000.00

Lietuvos Respublikos Aplinkos Ministerija

Name: Lietuvos Respublikos Aplinkos Ministerija

Department: Forest Department

Address: A. Jakšto str. 4, LT-01105 Vilnius, Lithuania

Legal status: public

Website: http://www.am.lt

Total budget: EUR 25 000.00

ERDF budget: EUR 21 250.00

Instytut Badawczy Leśnictwa (IBL)

Name: Instytut Badawczy Leśnictwa (IBL)

Department: Department of Forest Resources Management and Department of Forest Ecology

Address: Braci Leśnej 3, 05-090 Sękocin, Poland

Legal status: public

Website: http://www.ibles.pl

Total budget: EUR 411 024.80

ERDF budget: EUR 349 371.08

SKOGFORSK

Name: SKOGFORSK

Department: Silviculture and environment

Address: Uppsala Science Park , 751 83 Uppsala, Sweden

Legal status: private

Website: http://www.skogforsk.se

Total budget: EUR 199 939.55

ERDF budget: EUR 149 954.66

Sveriges Lantbruksuniversitet

Name: Sveriges Lantbruksuniversitet

Department: Department of Aquatic Sciences and Assessment

Address: Box 7050, SE-75007 Uppsala, Sweden

Legal status: public

Website: http://www.slu.se

Total budget: EUR 536 350.00

ERDF budget: EUR 402 262.50

Partners map

Lead partner

Project partner

Summary

Project name (EN): Water Management in Baltic Forests

Project acronym: WAMBAF

Project start date: 2016-03-01

Project end date: 2019-02-28

Project status: closed

Total budget/expenditure: EUR 2 930 965.00

Total EU funding (amount): EUR 2 283 826.22

Total EU funding (co-financing rate): 77.90%

Co-financing sources:

ERDF: Amount, EUR 2 283 826.22.

Documents

Documents on this project are listed below, and organised by category. Please note field "Data source", attached to each document. Keep.eu users are free to use these documents as long as they mention the data source and keep.eu.

Websites / webtools / webforums / cooperative platforms

Skogsstyrelsen - WAMBAF Tool Box

Attachment type: link

Type of document: Website / webtool / webforum / cooperative platform

Data source: https://interreg-baltic.eu/project/wambaf/

Publication date: 2022-07-30

Document date: 2019-02-28

Languages: en

Attachment link: https://www.skogsstyrelsen.se/en/wambaf/

Water Management in Baltic Forests - Interreg Baltic Sea Region

Attachment type: link

Type of document: Website / webtool / webforum / cooperative platform

Data source: https://projects.interreg-baltic.eu/ WAMBAF

Publication date: 2022-07-30

Document date: 2019-02-28

Languages: en

Attachment link: https://interreg-baltic.eu/project/wambaf/

Information regarding the data in keep.eu on the programme financing this project

Financing programme

2014 - 2020 INTERREG VB Baltic Sea

Last month that data in keep.eu was retrieved from the Programme's website or received from the Programme

2023-06-16

No. of projects in keep.eu / Total no. of projects (% of projects in keep.eu)

200 / 200 (100%)

No. of project partnerships in keep.eu / Total no. of project partnerships (% of project partnerships in keep.eu)

2 025 / 2 025 (100%)

Notes on the data

Information provided by the Programme. Achievements were retrieved by Interact from the Programme website (http://www.interreg-baltic.eu/home.html), or a website directly linked from it, on 2021-11-30.

The financial data featured in keep.eu for this programme, it's projects and its partners is not exact and should be taken as a reference only.

Languages

Contact Form

Water Management in Baltic Forests

Description

Thematic information

Partners (9)

Partners map

Summary

Documents

Information regarding the data in keep.eu on the programme financing this project

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