The expert seminar, taking place on 7–8 July, is organised by the University of Latvia’s “LIFE PeatCarbon” project in cooperation with the Ministry of Defence, the National Armed Forces and the NATO Centre of Excellence on Climate Change and Security (CCASCOE).
The first day of the seminar, "Wetland's Role for Climate Change Mitigation and Defence"
will be held at the University of Latvia House of Nature (Jelgavas iela, Rīga) and will include four thematic sessions. The opening session will address weatland policy and planning at national and European Union level, including wetland hydrological restoration projects in Latvia. The second session will focus on wetland hydrological restoration as a tool for climate change mitigation, drawing on experience from Latvia, Lithuania and the Netherlands. It will include a presentation by Māra Pakalne, head of the “LIFE PeatCarbon” project, on the project’s results and lessons learned so far.
The afternoon sessions will examine the role of peatlands in security and defence – using historical and contemporary examples from Latvia and Lithuania and explore how hydrological modifications affect human security, with speakers from the USA, France, Germany and Latvia. The first day will conclude with an informal gathering at the University of Latvia Botanical Garden.
The second day will be dedicated to field visits to peatlands. Seminar participants will visit two of Latvia’s most significant mire landscape sites: Cenas Mire, a raised bog where active hydrological restoration has been carried out since 2006, led by Māra Pakalne; and Tīreļu Mire, led by Kārlis Dambītis, a historian at the National Defence Academy of Latvia. Both sites clearly demonstrate the dual importance of peatland ecosystems: as carbon sinks essential for climate mitigation, and as terrain with direct relevance for defence planning.
The seminar will be conducted in English.
For further information, please contact Jānis Liniņš, Senior Expert of the Logistics Strategy Section of the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Latvia, at: janis.linins@mod.gov.lv.
The seminar is organised within the framework of the LIFE PeatCarbon project, implemented under the European Commission's LIFE Programme for Climate Change Mitigation.
This text was translated using AI.
