The Central Finance and Contracting Agency (CFLA) has once again announced an open call for project applications for European Union (EU) fund support towards drawing up biodiversity conservation and ecosystem protection plans in specially protected nature areas. The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) financing remaining for local authorities under this programme is 1.7 million euro.
Under the second round of the EU fund programme drawn up by the Ministry of Smart Administration and Regional Development, in which projects will be implemented by local authorities, protection and restoration measures are to be developed for Natura 2000 areas covering 11,250 hectares.
The ERDF will finance up to 85% of a project's total eligible costs. The ERDF financing available in the second call of the second selection round is 1,719,631 euro. The minimum amount of eligible costs per project is at least 200,000 euro.
CFLA will accept project applications until 18 December 2024, while projects may be implemented up to the end of 2027. The project selection documentation is published on the CFLA website cfla.gov.lv.
EU fund support for local authorities to draw up nature protection plans is provided under the second round of measure 2.2.3.3. "Measures to promote and conserve biodiversity" of specific support objective 2.2.3 "Improving nature protection and biodiversity, green infrastructure, particularly in the urban environment, and reducing pollution" of the EU cohesion policy programme for 2021–2027.
Four project applications were received in the first call of this programme, for total ERDF investment of 780,369 euro.
Information on all project selection rounds is available in the "Programmes" section of the CFLA website.