The Ministry of Smart Administration and Regional Development has approved the nature protection plan for the “Augšdaugava” Protected Landscape Area (PLA), running until 2036. Although the plan is advisory in nature, it serves as a basis for attracting financial resources for the maintenance, management and restoration of natural assets, and it may also make it easier to obtain various permits and approvals. The plan is available to everyone on the Nature Conservation Agency website.

The nature protection plan has been drawn up to reconcile the interests of nature conservation, the use of natural resources, landscape and cultural history, and regional development. The plan sets out long-term and short-term objectives, brings together proposals for the protection of species and habitats, and establishes a management action plan for the specially protected nature territory.

The plan includes proposals for the functional zoning of the territory and for individual protection and use regulations that would promote management of the territory better suited to its assets and support the preservation of its natural, landscape and cultural-historical values.

The upper reaches of the Daugava in Latvia have survived as the last stretch of the river valley relatively little affected by human economic activity, and it is therefore important to alter it as little as possible in future, so as to preserve the species, habitats and landscape found here. Accordingly, the ideal or long-term objective for the management of the “Augšdaugava” PLA is to preserve the natural and cultural-historical assets of the “Augšdaugava” PLA – the stretch of the River Daugava unaltered by human activity and the areas adjoining the river – by protecting its landscape structure as well as the diversity of habitats and species, while at the same time promoting the sustainable development of the territory and balancing the interests of nature conservation, the protection of cultural-historical assets and socio-economic interests. For the period covered by the nature protection plan, 26 short-term objectives have been set, covering administrative and organisational aspects, the protection and management of natural assets, public education and information, the organisation of tourism and recreation, the management of landscape and cultural-historical assets, research and monitoring.

As the settlement structure, political and religious authority and trading activity changed over the course of history, the “Augšdaugava” PLA developed into an inhabited landscape diverse in both its buildings and its ethnic make-up. As a result, one of the unique features and assets of the territory is the remarkable density of cultural monuments (historical and archaeological) from various periods of history. The interaction of nature and human economic activity in this territory has shaped a unique landscape along the banks of the Daugava. The local community plays an essential role in the further management and preservation of the landscape and natural assets of the “Augšdaugava” PLA.

The territory of the “Augšdaugava” PLA takes in a number of separate natural sites that also serve as tourist destinations – the “Daugavas loki” nature park, the geological formations “Adamovas krauja”, “Daugavas vārti”, “Mālkalnes avoti”, “Sandarišku karengravas”, “Sproģu gravas” and “Viļušu avots”, as well as the dendrological plantings of Hoftenberga Park, Juzefova Park and Rozališķi Park.

The “Augšdaugava” PLA was established as a single territory in 1999 in order to preserve outstanding cultural-landscape and natural-scientific assets in the Daugava valley and its surroundings. The “Augšdaugava” PLA currently lies within Augšdaugava and Krāslava municipalities and borders Belarus.

Since 2004, the “Aušdaugava” PLA has been included in the Natura 2000 network of protected areas of European Union (EU) importance as a protection area for specially protected species, including birds, and specially protected habitats. On 25 February 2011, the “Augšdaugava” PLA was added to Latvia's national list for the UNESCO World Heritage.

The plan was drawn up on behalf of the Nature Conservation Agency by the University of Latvia under the EU Cohesion Fund-financed project “Creating the preconditions for better conservation of biodiversity and protection of ecosystems in Latvia”, also known as the “Nature Census”.