WETLIFE 2 — Hydrological Restoration of the Amalva and Kamanos Raised Bogs (Lithuania)

Amalva and Kamanos are two of Lithuania's most significant raised-bog and transitional-mire complexes, both long degraded by peat-extraction-era drainage networks. Between July 2014 and October 2018, the EU co-funded WETLIFE 2 project (LIFE13 NAT/LT/000084; total budget EUR 1,564,386, of which EUR 1,173,289 was EU co-financing) restored their hydrology, coordinated by the Nature Heritage Fund with the Kamanos State Nature Reserve Directorate, the Zuvintas Biosphere Reserve Directorate and Marijampole Municipality Administration.

At Kamanos, the project blocked approximately 37 km of drainage ditches to rewet around 670 ha of mire habitat and restore a further 40 ha of lag-zone fen. At Amalva, works raised or rebuilt 6.6 km of perimeter dykes, constructed two spillways and a dam, blocked over 20 ha of underground drains, and cleared encroaching trees from more than 140 ha, targeting regeneration of active raised-bog vegetation on approximately 775 ha, plus 26 ha of bog woodland and 6 ha of restored wet meadow. Water-level monitoring equipment was installed at both sites, and sustainable land-management practices were agreed with local farmers.

The engineering interventions and habitat-area targets are verified through the official European Commission LIFE project registry. No independently published post-project ecological or carbon outcome study has been found for either site; the project's After-LIFE Conservation Plan commits the partners to continued monitoring.

These figures describe verified engineering interventions and habitat-area targets rather than an independently confirmed ecological or carbon outcome. The long-term ecological result should be treated as targeted and engineering-verified rather than fully outcome-confirmed.