WAMBAF

#011, WATER MANAGEMENT IN BALTIC FORESTS (WAMBAF) of Interreg Baltic Sea Region

General information

Project acronym WAMBAF

Priority area Natural resources

Specific objective Clear water

Duration of implementation phase (months): 36

Implementation start (Contracting): 19/05/2016.

Implementation end: 28/02/2019

Closure end: 31/05/2019

Partner No. PP5

Legal Representative: Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry (LAMMC)

Leader Partner  Swedish Forest Agency, Sweden

Legal Basis:

• REGULATION (EU) No 1299/2013 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 17 December 2013 on specific provisions for the support from the European Regional Development Fund to the European territorial cooperation goal, Article 13(2)
• The cooperation programme "Interreg Baltic Sea Region" (CCI 2014TC16M5TN001)
• The Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme Manuals
• The Agreement on the Management, Financial and Control Systems of the programme made between the countries participating in the programme and the Investitionsbank Schleswig-Holstein
• The Agreement on Management, Control and Audit concerning beneficiaries located outside the Programme area of the Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme 2014-2020 (Agreement according to Article 20(2)(c) of Regulation EU (No) 1299/2013) made between the partner countries to the programme and the Investitionsbank Schleswig-Holstein

Basic Activities

WAMBAF activities comprise 5 main working packages (hereinafter WP):

WP1 (Project management and administration)

WP2 (Mapping guidelines and tools)

WP3 (Developing guidelines and tools)

WP4 (Demonstration and implementation)

WP5 (Validation and action plan)

Project Partners

Note: * Leader Partner (LP)

** PP5: on the basis of the Order No. CV-1-63 of 10/06/2016 by the Director of the Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry (LRCAF), The Institute of Forestry LRCAF is assigned to manage and implement the Project during the project implementation period, 19/05/2016 – 31/05/2019

Associated Organisations

AIMS AND GOALS

Forests cover 48 % of the Baltic Sea (BS) catchment. Most forests are managed for timber and energy production. Forests have not only the high economic value but also inherent ecological, social and ones. Rivers and streams transport nutrients and hazardous substances from forests to the regional and coastal waters causing eutrophication, pollution and decrease in biodiversity. HELCOM has estimated that the natural background load from forests comprise near 19 % of the total nitrogen and 16 % of the total phosphorus load to the BS. Maintenance of forest drainage systems, management of riparian forests, and the distribution of beaver dams are main drivers in the BS forests, which effect the inflow of nutrients and hazardous substances (e. g. methyl mercury), and affect the biodiversity of riparian ecosystems.

The main gaps today: to date, water protection practices for maintenance of drainage systems and management of riparian forests and beaver populations have been developed and implemented at the national level in the BS countries, resulting in rather different solutions and seldom using best available cost-effective practices. A transnational project will promote sustainable forestry and help to improve water quality in the whole BS Region.

WAMBAF is directed to solve problems in forestry activities related to the water quality. Special emphasis is set on clear water, nutrient export and hazardous substances as mercury Hg and methyl mercury MeHg.

Special Objectives

Clear waters: to increase efficiency of water management for reduce nutrient inflows and decrease 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.

The main horizontal principle of WAMBAF

Forests have high ecological, economic and social value in BS countries. They host rich biodiversity, they are source of bioenergy and raw materials, and they provide work and recreation for people. Outputs and result of WAMBAF will promote sustainable use of forest resources, which at the same time takes care of water protection and maintenance of biodiversity in riparian forests and water ecosystems. That is done by providing knowledge, guidelines, methods and tools for minimizing the leaching of nutrients and hazardous substances to regional and coastal waters at forestry operations and beaver management. These outputs of the project will be implemented into practice.

The project includes three main topics that have large impact of the water quality: 1) drainage; 2) riparian forests (buffer zones), and 3) beaver activity.

1) 10 million hectares of peat lands have been drained for forestry in the BSR, and in Finland alone, annually drainage systems are cleaned on 50,000 hectares. However, there is lack of knowledge, guidelines and tools for assessing, if drainage systems should be maintained or not, and if done, how that should be done, from both water quality and economic perspectives.

The main objective of this tool is: to increase knowledge, improve guidelines and develop tools for assessing if drainage systems should be maintained or not, and if done how that should be done form water quality perspective.

2) Riparian forests cover an important part of the forest area in the BSR. In Sweden alone there is >800,000 km of freshwater shoreline. Forest operations, including terrain transport, need to be carefully planned to avoid inflows of nutrients and hazardous substances. However, there is lack of the efficient tools for planning forest operations in order to minimize the negative impacts on water quality.

The main objective of the tool is: to Improve and develop efficient tools for planning forest operations in order to minimize the negative impacts on water quality

3) Beaver populations are considered to have reached densities causing substantial damage levels, e.g. in the south-eastern BS countries. However, there is lack of knowledge, guidelines and tools to assess which type of beaver dams have the best capacity to decrease the amounts of nutrients and hazardous substances in waters, organization structures and incentives to manage the distribution of beavers in a sustainable way.

The main objective of the tool is: to Increase knowledge, improve and develop guidelines and tools to assess: 1) which type of beaver dams have the best capacity to decrease the leaching of nutrients and hazardous substances; 2) which organization structures and incentives are the best for managing the distribution of beavers in a sustainable way.

For these topics, there is a lack of demonstration areas and training to apply guidelines and tools, and monitor the impacts.

Having regard to the “Partnership agreement between the lead partner (Swedish Forest Agency) and Project Partner No"5 (Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry, LAMMC) for the implementation of the project #011, Water Management in Baltic Forests (WAMBAF) of Interreg Baltic Sea Region”, approved by the Monitoring Committee of Interreg Baltic Sea Region on 19/11/2015), PP5 undertakes to complete all activities foreseen in the detailed work plan and setting up and fulfilling the quality criteria for the main outputs. Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry is responsible for developing the Beaver Tool and the Beaver Handbook as defined in the project data and in accordance with the quality criteria. After the end of the project the Beaver Tool and the Beaver Handbook will be available open access on the website.

Beavers as semi-aquatic animals affect both riparian forests and drainage system significantly while their presence in the forests is considered controversially. In the case of Lithuania, approximately half of beaver sites are regarded as destructive to drainage systems and forests. However, effects of beavers on surface water quality can be both positive and negative. All mentioned points are interdependent. Cooperation of the different actors of BS is necessary to develop management for protecting water toward clear Baltic Sea.

Despite numerous works and different publications on separate topics (buffer zones, drainage system and beaver) or their combination, started analysis of the existing knowledge shows a lack of studies, demonstrations and tools of beaver effect on loads of hazardous substances. Based on the background information PP05 (LAMMC) strive to develop the Beaver tool and prepare the Beaver Handbook. It will help in classification of beaver dams, exchange of the good experience developing and implementing the best management practises in BSR, reducing the leakage of nutrients and hazardous substances to the regional waters and BS. The establishment of Demonstration areas and training courses for managing of beaver populations and cleaning the forest water in BSR will help to clarify the actual role of beaver. The tool box is designated for use by target groups including policy makers, foresters, conservationists and NGO as hunters, forest owners and associations of foresters.

OUTPUTS

• Beaver as a renewable resource – A beaver dam handbook for the Baltic Sea Region
• Beaver Population Management in the Baltic Sea Region Countries – A Review of Current Knowledge, Methods and Areas for Development
• Beaver Population Management in the Baltic Sea Region – A Review of Current Knowledge, Methods and Areas for Development. Short version
• Blue Targeting – manual. How to do Blue Targeting for planning of best management practice (BMP) for forestry along small streams
• Good practices for forest buffers to improve surface water quality in the Baltic Sea region
• Good practices for forest buffers to promote good surface water quality in the Baltic Sea region – A handbook
• WAMBAF – Good Practices for Ditch Network  Maintenance to Protect Water Quality in the Baltic Sea Region. Short version
• WAMBAF – Good Practices for Ditch Network Maintenance to Protect Water Quality in the Baltic Sea Region
• WP2 scientific report “Beaver dam management knowledge and methodology and needs for their development in the Baltic Sea countries”
• 1^st Newsletter “Water Management in Baltic Forests. Partner 5, 2016”