In order to protect the values of Nature Park “Piejūra”, since September 2016 the Local Government of the Carnikava Municipality together with the Riga City Council City Development Department, the Nature Conservation Agency and the Association “Baltic Coasts”, with the support of the European Commission and co-funding provided by the Administration of the Latvian Environmental Protection Fund, are implementing project LIFE15 NAT/LV/000900, “Coastal Habitat Conservation in Nature Park “Piejūra” (LIFE CoHaBit)”. It is planned to finish the project by year 2020, and the main aim of this project is to improve the quality of the coastal habitats by selecting appropriate methods for their management. By restoring the nature conservation plan and by purposefully implementing practical management measures for the habitats of dunes and forests, it will be possible to regulated the anthropogenic (caused by humans) load in the park and to plan its infrastructure without harming the values of the park.

In the territory of Nature Park ”Piejūra” (Natura 2000 site) currently 20 protected habitats of European Union significance have been found, 10 of which are of high priority, for example, embryonic dunes, coastal grasslands and grey dunes covered with herbs. The boreal region coastal habitats and the species living in them are important at the level of the European Union because their areas of distribution can be found only in the Baltic States and the Scandinavian States. Because of the increasing effects of the actions carried out by humans, preservation of coastal habitats is becoming more difficult. The topical problems that are planned to be addressed within the project:
• planning of appropriate park visitors’ infrastructure because lack of appropriate infrastructure results in significant anthropogenic load on the protected habitats and the quality of the habitats deteriorates;
• reducing the incidence endangerment of the local species, characteristic to the biotopes, due to spread of invasive (foreign) species;
• reduce the risks causing the prevalence areal are of the coastal meadow biotopes to reduce;
• search and implement innovative solutions that would allow to reduce the endangerment of the biotopes under the impact of coastal erosion processes;
In order to successfully implement the preservation, restoration and sustainable management of the coastal biotopes and species, specific tasks have been planned. In total, over a period of four years and on the basis of expert opinions and the effective protection plan of Nature Park “Piejūra”, regular measures for reducing the effects of foreign species (Japanese rose, low juneberry); for reducing the overgrowing of forests and dunes, by freeing them of shrubbery. In Daugavgrīva and on the Bullu Island the grasslands and lagoons will be restored. Within the framework of measures against coastal erosion and in order to partly regulate the sand flow in the site most visited by people, it is planned to install willow fencing; whereas in the areas free of vegetation and in the coastal eroded areas it is planned to plant sand ryegrass. Throughout the entire project, specialists of the Nature Conservation Agency will be supervising and assessing the impact effectiveness of the implemented measures.
In order to ensure a regime promoting the developments of the Nature Park’s habitats, it is planned to create individual objects for the convenience of visitors: board path ways, benches and toilets.
During the project it is planned to purposefully inform various groups of society on the coastal values and conditions necessary for their sustainable and favourable existence because successful implementation of the project is possible only if the local inhabitants cooperate with the visitors, by informing them of the significance of the measures to be carried out and by inviting them to show care towards the installed infrastructure of the park.

Entire cost of the project: 970.067.00 EUR
European Union LIFE Programme funding: 582.041.00 EUR
C-funding: 388.026.00 EUR.

Co-funding is provided by the Administration of the Latvian Environmental Protection Fund and the following project partners: the Local Government of Carnikava Municipality, Riga City Council City Development Department, Nature Conservation Agency and Association “Baltic Coasts”.