On 30 June, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development organised a meeting of the Maritime and Coastal Spatial Planning Coordination Group on the interests of the areas of environment and nature protection in the Marine Plan. The project partners provided four presentations at this meeting in the sub-section “Nature Protection Interests in the Sea”

Ilze Urtāne, expert on marine areas of the Nature Conservation Agency, gave a presentation on the development of a nature management plan for existing and potential protected marine areas and an expert - ornithologist Pēteris Daknis gave short introduction about aviocounts of sea birds.

Ingrīda Andersone, head of the LIFE REEF project in the Latvian Institute of Aquatic Ecology, gave a presentation on the exploration of the marine habitats of Latvia and the determination of the connectivity of habitats.

The head of the LIFE REEF project in the Institute for Food Safety, Animal Health and Environment "BIOR", Ivars Putnis, presented on research and fish-important habitats, by-catches.

The meeting of the Maritime and Coastal Spatial Planning Coordination Group also focuses on environmental quality issues. The quality of the environment, or what we can do to achieve good environmental status in the Baltic Sea. The conclusion is that most of the environmental characteristics do not correspond to good marine environmental status.

If until now biogenic intake and eutrophication were considered to be the biggest negative impact, then the second major negative impact is attributable to climate change and water brew. This reduce biodiversity at sea due to the reduction of places with suitable conditions.

As pollution enters the sea through river drainages, the main expectations are to be built on the measures provided for in the river basin plans, mainly to reduce dispersed pollution from agriculture, forestry and to improve the functioning of waste water plants.