European Union protected habitats in Latvia: interpretation manual

English. This manual includes methodology for determination of European Union protected habitats that are encountered in the territory of Latvia. It was necessary to publish this manual in order to implement requirements of the EU Habitats Directive more successfully. Nature conservation and development projects with various scale and impact are carried out on a regular basis both in areas of special protection and outside of them. In order to ensure that these projects are not in conflict with the requirements of environmental protection, legislation provides procedures to assess the impact of development projects on the environment, incl. protected habitats. In order to perform this assessment, these areas are examined in nature and habitats that are found in these areas are evaluated. Habitat mapping is performed when developing nature conservation plans and before habitat monitoring is commenced. However, since there has not been a single practically verified method for the identification of habitats, experts are not always unanimous in the decision-making process. Along with the publication of this manual, there will be less possibilities for arbitrary interpretation of habitats and it will serve as a point of reference in identification of habitats. Thus, the society will also be able to get acquainted with the criteria and methods that are used to identify habitats that will, in its turn, promote access to information, better compliance with the principles of environmental management, openness of habitat identification process and better understanding of the environmental conservation criteria.

Latvian. Rokasgrāmatā izdota metodika Latvijā sastopamo Eiropas Savienības nozīmes aizsargājamo biotopu noteikšanai dabā. Tās izdošana sekmēs ES Biotopu Direktīvas prasību īstenošanu Latvijā.