Jurijs Prokofjevs
Grounded in real landscapes, practical land management, and applied ecological work in Latvia.
Land & Implementation
Sita Nature Park is located in the Sita and Pededze Floodplain nature reserve, a protected area created to safeguard floodplain meadows, lowland hay meadows, species-rich grasslands, wooded meadows, riparian forests, and protected species. This landscape is shaped by the Pededze River and seasonal flooding, making restoration and farming inseparable from ecological management.
For Baltic Nature Capital, this is an important practical foundation. It means the company’s natural capital thinking is not built only from market theory, but from direct experience in protected landscapes where restoration, farming, biodiversity, and long-term land economics must work together.
EU Projects
Jurijs Prokofjevs is a Latvia-based land steward, nature farmer, and co-founder of Baltic Nature Capital. His experience is rooted in practical work across protected landscapes, floodplain meadows, grazing-based habitat management, and circular bioeconomy initiatives.
Through SIA Sita Nature Park, Jurijs works in the Sita and Pededze Floodplain landscape in Litene Parish, Gulbene Municipality - a protected Natura 2000 area shaped by natural grasslands, wetlands, seasonal flooding, and high biodiversity value. Public project materials describe Sita Nature Park as a 400-hectare farm active in deer farming and beef cattle breeding, with restoration activity linked to floodplain meadow management and long-term grazing systems.
His work gives Baltic Nature Capital direct insight into how natural capital projects function in practice: land access, seasonal conditions, stakeholder relationships, grazing systems, biomass use, protected-area rules, and the realities of long-term landscape management.
LIFE UpcyclingGrass develops technologies and business models for using grassland biomass in new, competitive, and more climate-friendly products. The project focuses on circular use of grass biomass and aims to reduce dependence on non-renewable resources such as peat-based inputs.
At Sita Nature Park, a mobile pellet production unit has been installed to process biomass from the Sita and Pededze floodplains into grass pellets. These pellets are being tested for applications such as animal bedding, seedling substrates, soil fertilisers, and microorganism-enriched feed-additive pathways. Public project materials describe Jurijs Prokofjevs as the owner of SIA Sita Nature Park and one of the project’s initiators.
Why it matters for BNC:
This project shows how protected grassland management can be linked to circular bioeconomy models, creating a practical bridge between restoration, agriculture, climate impact, and commercial product development.
LIFE Upcycling Grass
Beyond environmental programmes, Juris is connected to Latvia’s agricultural sector, including initiatives aimed at strengthening local supply chains such as the Latvian beef producers initiative. This reflects a wider engagement with rural economic systems and highlights the relationship between land use, food production, and regional development.
He has also participated in public discussions at events such as the LAMPA Festival, contributing to conversations around sustainability, land use, and the future of rural economies in Latvia.
Taken together, his work sits at the intersection of agriculture, environmental management, and applied innovation. Rather than operating in a purely advisory capacity, Juris is directly involved in projects that shape how land is used, restored, and integrated into emerging economic models — from biodiversity conservation to circular resource use..
LIFE MarshMeadows is an EU LIFE project restoring large wetland complexes and ecosystem functions across Natura 2000 territories in Latvia and Lithuania. The project includes hydrological restoration, habitat restoration, long-term grazing systems, and large-scale nature-area recovery.
At Sita Nature Park, the project includes restorative grazing across floodplain meadows, expansion of Angus and Hereford cattle herds, winter shelter construction, grazing infrastructure, fencing, and access-road improvements. A Sita Nature Park restoration area includes EU priority habitats such as 6450 floodplain grasslands and 6270 species-rich pastures and grazed meadows.
Why it matters for BNC:
This project demonstrates practical wetland and floodplain restoration experience, including how grazing-based land management can maintain open habitats, reduce overgrowth, and support long-term biodiversity outcomes.
LIFE MarshMeadows
GrassLIFE2
LIFE MarshMeadows is an EU LIFE project restoring large wetland complexes and ecosystem functions across Natura 2000 territories in Latvia and Lithuania. The project includes hydrological restoration, habitat restoration, long-term grazing systems, and large-scale nature-area recovery.
At Sita Nature Park, the project includes restorative grazing across floodplain meadows, expansion of Angus and Hereford cattle herds, winter shelter construction, grazing infrastructure, fencing, and access-road improvements. A Sita Nature Park restoration area includes EU priority habitats such as 6450 floodplain grasslands and 6270 species-rich pastures and grazed meadows.
Why it matters for BNC:
This project demonstrates practical wetland and floodplain restoration experience, including how grazing-based land management can maintain open habitats, reduce overgrowth, and support long-term biodiversity outcomes.
GrassLIFE
GrassLIFE was launched to restore priority grassland habitats in Latvia and improve long-term management of semi-natural grasslands. The project restored around 1,320 hectares of EU priority grassland habitats across 14 Natura 2000 sites and worked with farms to test restoration methods and improve the economic viability of sustainable grassland management.
Why it matters for BNC:
GrassLIFE helped build the practical restoration knowledge base for semi-natural grasslands in Latvia. It is part of the wider ecosystem of Latvian Fund for Nature programmes that shape Jurijs’s land-management context and the restoration landscape in which Sita Nature Park operates.
