Study supported by the Forest Development Fund (agreement No. 22-00-S0MF01-000004)
Normative acts provide that once every five years is necessary to assess the sustainability of forest management, including the assessment of indicators characterizing biological diversity. To contribute to the assessment of biological diversity – at the genetic, species, and ecosystem (landscape) levels, is planned to collect data by the tasks and methodology specified in the research application. Forest biodiversity monitoring is carried out by LSFRI "Silava" within the National Forest Monitoring Program framework, which is implemented by the Cabinet of Minister's regulations No.51 "National forest monitoring regulations", issued by the second part of Article29.1 of the Forest Law. The component of forest biological diversity can be implemented according to the methodology for assessing biological diversity within the framework of national forest monitoring.
The study aims to monitor forest biodiversity within the framework of the National Forest Monitoring Program, to obtain information on the state of biodiversity, and to assess changes at the national level to ensure sustainable forest management in Latvia.
Tasks of the study:
- Carry out forest genetic diversity monitoring in two stands of forest genetic resources and two seed plantations.
- To assess vegetation, epiphytes, and epixiles in 100 forest resource monitoring plots.
- In all forest resource monitoring plots with dead wood, conduct an in-depth assessment of dead wood (fieldwork only).
- In all forest resource monitoring sample plots where trees grow, monitor structures important for biological diversity (fieldwork only).