GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE PROJECT
On 30 November 2017, the Central Finance and Contract Agency and the Administration of the Latvian Environmental Protection Fund signed an Agreement on the implementation of the European Union Fund project "Development of state environmental monitoring programmes and control system and fostering public involvement by improving the infrastructure of national environmental information and education centres" No.5.4.2.2./17/I/002.
The project will be implemented in accordance with the Cabinet of Ministers Regulation No. 859 of 20 December 2016 "Implementing Rules for Measure 5.4.2.2 "Development of Environmental Monitoring and Control System and Promotion of Public Participation in Environmental Management" of the Specific Support Objective 5.4.2 of the Operational Programme "Growth and Employment" "Ensuring the Development of Environmental Monitoring and Control System and Timely Prevention of Environmental Risks, as well as Public Participation in Environmental Management"".
The objective of the project is to develop the national environmental monitoring and control system and to promote public participation in environmental management by improving the technical equipment of the institutions responsible for national environmental monitoring and control and the environmental education and information centres of national importance, as well as by implementing public participation measures.
The project is implemented by the Latvian Environmental Protection Fund Administration together with its partners - the National Botanical Garden, the Latvian Museum of Natural History, the Riga National Zoological Garden, the State Environmental Service, the Latvian Institute of Hydroecology, the Nature Conservation Agency, the Latvian University of Agriculture and the State Plant Protection Service.
The aim of the project is to contribute to the implementation of the measures set out in the State Plant Protection Service strategy for agrochemical soil surveys in a representative set, technical support for soil mineral nitrogen determination and technical support for the determination of the distribution of the invasive Sosnowsky's hogweed. The involvement in the project provides an opportunity to increase the quality and efficiency of the execution of the environmental control functions delegated to the State Plant Protection Service by renewing and modernising the technical facilities of the service.
The project is in line with the Environmental Policy Guidelines 2014-2020 (approved by the Cabinet of Ministers Order No 130 of 26 March 2014), which in Annex 3, paragraph 2.1, describing the current situation, concludes that "In parallel with the development of environmental monitoring, the technical base for environmental control should also be improved. In view of the increasing requirements of EU legislation, both in terms of monitoring performance and data quality and control of environmental protection requirements, and in order to ensure a reliable assessment of the state of the environment and the improvement of the whole monitoring and control system, it is necessary to regularly improve and modernise the necessary technical support.
The project will be implemented with financial support from the EU Cohesion Fund and the national budget. The total cost of the project is €7 069 787.87, of which 84.09% of the eligible expenditure is Cohesion Fund funding, 11.72% of the eligible expenditure is public budget funding and 4.19% is private funding.
The planned financial envelope for the implementation of the delegated actions by State Plant Protection Service amounts to EUR 170 502, of which EUR 170 502 is allocated for the implementation of the Delegated Actions. Co-financing from the Cohesion Fund is 85% of the Contract amount or EUR 144 926.21 Co-financing from the State budget is EUR 25 575.22.
In order to meet the requirements of EU and Latvian legislation and to obtain high quality and objective soil monitoring data, one of the prerequisites is the technical equipment of the laboratory, which must ensure that samples are tested according to standards, with sufficient capacity and connectivity to databases. The activity will involve the purchase of two pieces of laboratory equipment for soil monitoring:
Dual atomic absorption spectrophotometer with flame burner, graphite furnace and automatic feed (rectangular palette) for the determination of micro- and macro-elements in soil samples;
Automated segmented flow analyser for the determination of ammonium ions NH4 and nitrate ions NO3 by spectrophotometric detection in soil samples - for the determination of mineral nitrogen content in soil.
For monitoring purposes, 15 ArcGIS tablets with ArcGIS server Enterprise Standard licence will be purchased for the detection of changes in the distribution of the invasive Sosnowsky's hogweed.
State Plant Protection Service is participating in:
- agrochemical soil surveys in a representative set
- technical support for soil mineral nitrogen monitoring
- technical support for monitoring the distribution of the invasive Sosnowsky's hogweed