Salaca, the most important salmon river in the Eastern part of the central Baltic Sea basin, is a water body that needs special attention to improve its ecological quality. Both the Council Directive 92/43/EEC (May 21, 1992) on the protection of natural habitats, wild fauna and flora (Habitats Directive) and the Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and the Council (Water Framework Directive) aim to ensure healthy water ecosystems while ensuring a balance between sustainable use of water resources and nature protection. In order to plan freshwater management more rationally, a new, unified framework for assessing the ecological quality of waters and the quality of habitats is needed. Such an approach will initially be developed for the sub-catchment of the Salacas River, so that later it will be applied to all river basin areas in Latvia and possibly elsewhere in the European Union.
The aim of the project is to promote the achievement of a good water condition in the rivers of the Salaca sub-catchment, as determined by the Habitats Directive, the Water Framework Directive and the objectives of the EU Biodiversity Strategy.
Several activities will be carried out in the project to achieve the above-mentioned project goal. The implementation of practical management measures and the development of planning documents with the aim of improving the quality of the rivers of the Salaca sub-catchment and preserving natural values in the long term, as well as the transfer of knowledge and good practices to the public and experts in the field.