Demonstration of climate change mitigation potential of nutrient rich organic soils in Baltic States and Finland

Project "Demonstration of climate change mitigation potential of nutrient rich organic soils in Baltic States and Finland" (LIFE OrgBalt, LIFE18 CCM/LV/001158)

Project acronym: LIFE OrgBalt

Project aim: to demonstrate climate change mitigation potential by managing nutrient rich organic soils on agricultural and forest lands in a Cool Temperate Moist climate zone.

Project starts: 01/08/ 2019

Project ends: 31/08/2023

Project legal entity: Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry LAMMC

Project Leader: Latvian State Forest Research Institute “Silava”

Project participating countries:

• Estonia (all regions)
• Latvia (al regions)
• Lithuania (all regions)
• Finland (all regions)
• Germany (all regions)

Financiers: LIFE Climate Change Action, Administration of Environment Protection Fund, EUKI programme and own funding beneficiaries

Demonstration of management scenarios and impact modelling will be carried out with the aim of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the agriculture, forestry and other land use sector (AFOLU) and contributing to the European Union (hereinafter – EU) common and Member States national climate targets

Areas occupied by organic soils (soil with high concentration of organic matter) in the territory of the EU is 34.5 mill. ha, which is 7% of the total EU area. The LIFE OrgBalt project focuses on the most common group of organic soils – nutrient rich drained soils in temperate climate zone with an area of approximately 21 mill. ha or 61% of organic soils in EU countries.

Nutrient rich organic soils is one of the largest sources of GHG emissions from land use, land use change and forestry (hereinafter – LULUCF) sector in boreal and temperate climate zones in Europe. The accuracy of the LULUCF sector's GHG emissions, CO₂ removals and carbon sequestration calculations and the choice of the land use management scenarios are of particular importance in the context of the EU's vision for climate neutrality, highlighted by the European Commission in a strategic long-term vision 2050 – A Clean Planet for all. Choice of the land use and management model is expected to become an increasingly important part of climate change mitigation efforts in many EU countries.

Given the importance and uniqueness of the sector in providing carbon sequestration, as accurate as possible calculations of GHG emissions of the LULUCF sector will have a significant impact not only at countries` level, but on the EU as a whole. One of the biggest challenges for the sector remains activity data gathering, improved estimation accuracy and modelling of the GHG emission projections and impact of the climate change mitigation measures under different land use and climate change scenarios.

LIFE OrgBalt focuses on exploring and demonstrating the potential of complex GHG emission reduction and carbon sequestration in nutrient rich organic soil management, as well as developing a framework for assessment and implementation of climate change mitigation measures and promoting  of scientifically sound approach for land use and climate policy planning documents both in the short and long term perspective.

The LIFE OrgBalt project will run for four years, from 1^st of August 2019 to 31^st of August 2023.

Main project outcomes:

1. improved activity data and GHG inventory methods (GHG emission factors and activity data) used in assessment and projections of GHG emissions and carbon sequestration in relation to the management of nutrient rich organic soils;
2. established demonstration sites, identifying and demonstrating innovative climate change mitigation measures for the management of nutrient rich organic soils in agricultural and forest lands;
3. innovative tools (simulation model for modelling socio-economic and climate impacts of climate change mitigation measures) and proposals for incorporating identified measures into agricultural, forestry and climate policy planning documents.

The project is implemented by eight partners from five EU Member States – Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Finland and Germany. The project unites public administration institutions, scientific and non-governmental organisations. Leading partner Latvian State Forest Research Institute "Silava" implements the project in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Latvia, Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies, University of Tartu (Estonia), Natural Resources Institute Finland LUKE, Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry, Michael Succow Foundation (Germany) and Association Baltic Coasts (Latvia).

More information you will find here: https://www.orgbalt.eu

Project leaflet

LIFE OrgBalt has produced the first video with subtitles

A short description of the video content is available here

LIFE OrgBalt project seminar 19 05 2022

Project short documentary

Information has been published also on FB page: https://www.facebook.com/orgbalt

Popular articles

• 17 sites for demonstrating climate change mitigationapproaches within life orgbalt project
• Land and climate change: how do they relate to one another? A forest sector perspective 
• Land and climate change: how do they relate to one another? An agricultural sector perspective
• Climate change mitigation and adaptation: two different, yet inseparable strategies to tackle climate change (full article), summary: https://www.orgbalt.eu/?p=3908
• Research on climate mitigation measures for nutrient rich soils continues within the LIFE OrgBalt project (press release)
• LIFE OrgBalt project expands cooperation with other projects (press release)

Technical articles

• Mitigating climate change impacts in nutrient-rich organic soils with the application of wood ash after commercial thinning in spruce stands (full article), summary.

• Depth-to-water maps for the Baltics: Modelling of distribution of organic soils and wetareas (full article), summary: https://www.orgbalt.eu/?page_id=3739 

• Peatland simulator SUSI – a tool for estimating water table levels and greenhouse gas emissions in organic soils (full article), summary: https://www.orgbalt.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/LIFE-OrgBalt-article-Peatland-Simulator-SUSI.pdf
• GHG emissions measurement and sampling in agricultural lands: towards data-driven decision making for managing carbon rich organic soils 
• GHG emissions measurement and sampling in forest lands: a variety of methods for assessing the effectiveness of climate change adaptation measures
• Climate change mitigation scenarios involving Drainage activities in grasslands

Newsletters

• Issue 2
• Issue 3
• Issue 4
• Issue 5
• Issue 6

25^th–26^th of August, 2020 LIFE OrgBalt “Demonstration of climate change mitigation potential of nutrients rich organic soils in Baltic States and Finland” meeting “Presentations of the finalized protocols at the Lithuanian reference sites”

25^th–26^th of August, 2020 meeting AGENDA

17^th of June, 2020 LIFE OrgBalt “Demonstration of climate change mitigation potential of nutrients rich organic soils in Baltic States and Finland” National Workshop

17^th of June, 2020 presentations of National Workshop:

• LIFE OrgBalt project in Lithuania LAMMC activities. Dr. Kęstutis Armolaitis
• LIFE OrgBalt deliverable 2019 (II). A 1/3 Report on the identified climate change mitigation targeted management practices on organic soils. Vaiva Kazanavičiūtė
• Pelkių atkūrimas – klimato kaitos švelninimo priemonė. Projekto LIFE Peat Restore patirtis. Nerijus Zableckis
• LIFE OrgBalt project – scope and main objectives, importance of stakeholder engagement. Ieva Līcīte
• Functional land management for climate change mitigation. Aleksejs Nipers