The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands

World Wetlands Day 2002: Latvia

World Wetlands Day 2002 in Latvia

World Wetlands Day in Gauja National Park

On February 22, 7th class children of Cesis secondary school together with national park's experts made for an excursion to Suda bog. It is the largest mire in a territory of the Gauja national park. The central part of it is a nature reserve, which is closed to visitors. The excursion took place in northern part of the bog.

The participants of the excursion, 14 people, covered altogether 6,5 km, 3 of them - through the bog. During the excursion school children had a possibility to find out more about a formation of the bog, its flora and fauna, relations between people and a bog, for example, the influence of a drainage and peat extraction 70 years ago. They saw foot tracks of birds (hazel grouse) and mammals (fox, mice, hare) and got a sight of a fox itself, too. They also had a look at a place where run out waters of a brook that flows through the bog - one of special features of the Suda bog.

At the very end of the excursion its participants recieved educational materials about wetlands and their protection, including Suda bog.

Sent by Ilze Strausa
ilze@dabasmuzejs.gov.lv

For further information about the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, please contact the Ramsar Convention Bureau, Rue Mauverney 28, CH-1196 Gland, Switzerland (tel +41 22 999 0170, fax +41 22 999 0169, e-mail ramsar@ramsar.org). Posted 7 March 2002, Dwight Peck, Ramsar.