International projects

Õ007. Water management in Baltic forests – Tool box (WAMBAF-Tool Box) (Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme, 2019–2021

WAMBAF Tool Box is a follow-up of the previous WAMBAF project. Its aim is to introduce forestry practices that reduce the inflow of nutrients and hazardous substances into inland and coastal waters in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR). KarRC RAS in involved in the implementation of the Blue Targeting (BT) work package, designed to tune this tool (BT) to Northwest Russia.

The Blue Targeting (BT) tool is a checklist with Yes/No questions to be completed while walking along a forest stream. The resultant score system places the stream into one of four classes in terms of the optimal width of the riparian buffer needed to maintain ecosystem services in the area. An optimal protective buffer along forest streams would reduce the leakage of nutrients to water and alleviate the risk of hazardous substance (e.g. mercury) inflow. In the initial WAMBAF project, the BT tool was tailored to the natural settings of Finland, Poland and Baltic States. In the continuation project, this tool will be adjusted to Northwest Russia using the landscape approach.

Partners:
Russia: KarRC RAS; World Wildlife Fund (WWF Russia) Arkhangelsk Region Office
Sweden: Swedish Forest Agency (Lead Partner);
Forestry Research Institute of Sweden (Skogforsk); Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Finland: Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke); Metsähallitus
Lithuania: Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry (LAMMC)
Latvia: Latvian State Forest Research Institute Silava
Poland: Forest Research Institute (IBL)

The project is part-financed by the European Union (European Regional Development Fund) and the Russian Federation.


International projects
Last modified: March 23, 2020