In the RestPoll Living Lab, partners at the Baltic Studies Centre in Latvia are working in conjunction with the EU LIFE Programme project GrassLIFE2 (2023-2028), which in a follow-up of the project GrassLIFE (2017-2023). Coordinated by the Latvian Fund for Nature, GrassLIFE2 aims to improve the protection status of five European Union priority grassland biotopes in Latvia and to make their management more efficient. They use selected grasslands (protected habitats) in Natura 2000 sites to undertake their restoration, implement restoration monitoring, assess grassland management methods, promote the availability of plant seeds characteristic of semi-natural grasslands, strengthen land manager knowledge and public awareness of grassland restoration.
Activities within the Living Labs
Within the Living Lab network, we are conducting an array of different activities at different levels. These include:
Level 1
The center level contains activities that are conducted at the living labs but coordinated by RestPoll members (i.e. pollinator monitoring).
- Pollinator and vegetation monitoring (Task 1.2a)
- Pollination monitoring (Task 1.2b)
- Measuring the effect of co-design (Task 1.3)
- Rapid assessment of plants and pollinators (Task 1.4)
- Evaluate interactions among landscape-scale drivers and local restoration measures on pollinators (Task 2.2)
- Identify synergies and opportunities for improvements of current restoration implementations (Task 2.3)
Level 2
The second level contains activities that are conducted within the living lab with all stakeholders involved (i.e. workshop to discuss implementation of co-designed measures).
- Assess co-benefits of pollinators restoration measures and the direct and indirect impacts of restoration measures on bio-economy (Task 2.4 + 3.3)
- Develop and test a novel instrument based on Payments for Restoration-mediated Pollination Services (PRPS) (Task 3.2)
- Establishing and monitoring progress and knowledge flow with the Living Lab (Task 4.1)
- Assessing enabling conditions for pollinator restoration measures (Task 4.3)
Level 3
The third level are activities that are conducted within the living lab during demonstration events, including a larger audience (i.e. workshop on horizon scan).
- Horizon scanning of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities & threats for pollinator restorations (Task 4.4)
Level 4
The final level includes activities that involve the general public within the living lab vicinity (i.e. testing of feasibility of tools).
- Assessing the awareness of pollinators and willingness to protect them (Task 3.1)
- Estimate the value added by wild pollinators to the food value chain (Task 3.4)
- Test and evaluate tools for the RestPoll toolbox of restoration methods (Task 5.2)
- Survey consumer willingness to purchase biodiversity-friendly products (Task 5.3)
- Understanding and evaluating the co-design of pollinator-friendly labels (Task 5.4)
About this Living Lab
Implementations
Restoration of semi-natural grassland habitats
Main landuse types
Extensive grasslands (pasture, livestock)
Pollinator dependent crops
Semi-natural grassland habitats [pollinated crops are farm-specific]
Researchers
Anda Adamsone-Fiskovica
Lūcija Ceicāne
Contact us for collaboration
Alexandra Klein
alexandra.klein@nature.uni-freiburg.de
