10 Years of the Black Stork Conservation Programme in Latvia

The black stork (Ciconia nigra), regarded in Europe as a flagship species for nature conservation. In 2005, Latvia adopted a programme for the protection of the black stork. Along the lower inner edge, the name of the issuing state "LATVIJA" and below it the issue year "2015".

Latvia is one of the most important refuges for the black stork (Ciconia nigra) in Europe. This shy woodland bird needs old, unbroken deciduous forests with wet meadows and watercourses nearby — habitats still preserved to a significant extent in Latvia. While the black stork has become rare or disappeared as a breeding bird across much of Central and Western Europe, the country's extensive mixed forests and wetlands offer the species comparatively stable conditions. In conservation practice, it is regarded as a flagship species and an indicator of the health of entire forest ecosystems: wherever the black stork breeds, a high degree of structural diversity and relative undisturbedness is assured.

Despite this favourable starting point, Latvia faced the challenge of securing existing populations for the long term and monitoring them scientifically. The national black stork conservation programme, adopted in 2005, created for the first time a coordinated framework of nest-site monitoring, protected-area management and public awareness work. It brought together authorities, forestry enterprises and conservation organisations and firmly embedded protection of the species in land-use planning. On the programme's tenth anniversary in 2015, Latvia commemorated this commitment with a 2-euro commemorative coin — a sign that the black stork holds a firm place in Latvian nature conservation policy.