Project 4β Spotlight: Sengirės Fondas on Finding Forests Worth Saving

Narmin Mammadova

2026-07-23

3 min read

AI Summary:

Through Project 4β, Sengirės Fondas (the Ancient Woods Foundation) now uses Oxylabs' Web Unblocker to scan far more forest-plot listings than its small team could review by hand, flagging the ones worth checking as it works to protect Lithuania's rare old-growth forests. In just five weeks, the team has processed over 230 listings and already found and begun buying one forest worth saving for good.

Overview

Every week, dozens of new forest plots go up for sale across Lithuania. Most pass by unnoticed. But hidden among them are rare, biologically valuable stretches of old-growth woodland, the kind that, once cut, cannot be replaced. Finding those plots before they disappear is the whole challenge, and there are far more listings than any small team can read by hand.

Sengirės Fondas (Ancient Woods Foundation) exists to spot them. The Foundation’s core work is identifying Lithuania’s most valuable ancient forests, purchasing them from private owners, and permanently protecting them from logging and human activity. In this spotlight, Foundation manager Rimantė Paulauskaitė-Digaitienė explains how Project 4β helps her team cover more listings than they ever could manually, and how that reach has already led to a plot that is now in the process of being saved.

About Sengirės fondas

Sengirės Fondas (the Ancient Woods Foundation) is a Lithuanian environmental organization dedicated to preserving the country's oldest and most biologically rich forests. The Foundation has been steadily expanding the area it protects. In 2025, it bought 12 forest plots for preservation, totaling 174 hectares of future ancient woods, and the total area under its care has since grown to over 410 hectares. Public interest in preserving Lithuania's old forests has grown alongside that work: donations reached nearly a million euros last year alone, and total support since the Foundation's founding has surpassed 2.5 million euros.

Oxylabs has supported the Foundation’s mission for the past three years in several ways: contributing to artistic and social initiatives, joining campaigns to purchase forests, and providing technical tools for the Foundation's forest team.

More than 410 ha / 1013 ac of the old-growth forests are already preserved with all the life in them. It’s 41 forest plots - home to thousands of species.

An example of their work in practice

The Foundation runs on a simple weekly rhythm. Each week, the team compiles a fresh list of forest plots for sale and reviews the most relevant listings with support from Project 4β. With Oxylabs’ Web Unblocker, they can now review far more listings than they could manage manually. This matters because any one of them may contain a forest worth protecting.

We’ve only been using the tool for a few months, but thanks to it we’ve already selected one plot that met the Foundation’s criteria and begun the buyout process. It helped us find a forest to preserve and saved the team's resources.

Rimantė Paulauskaitė-Digaitienė, Manager, Sengirės fondas

So far, the team has processed five weekly lists covering more than 230 listings. Of those, around 50 were flagged as potentially relevant in the first pass, and about 10 warranted detailed review, either because they were valuable forests selected against the Foundation's 40+ scientific criteria, or because they bordered land already protected by the Foundation or nearby reserves. Working directly from listings also helps the Foundation avoid intermediaries, which can save several thousand euros on the purchase. You never know what treasure you might overlook. What matters to the Ancient Woods Foundation is finding unique, biologically valuable forest plots to preserve, while expanding protected areas. For a small team, that reach is what turns a stack of ordinary listings into the occasional discovery worth protecting for good.

We work with data every day, so we know how much of a difference the right tools can make. Sengirės fondas is doing work that lasts for generations, and being able to support that with Oxylabs technology through Project 4β means a lot to us.

Urtė Karklienė, Sustainability Manager, Oxylabs

Join 4β

At Project 4β, we see tremendous impact in supporting the organizations that protect the environment, defend democracy, and advance other critical public-interest missions. Sengirės Fondas's work is one example of what becomes possible when a mission-driven team has the tools that match the scale of its goals.

Alongside partners such as Global Witness and Lithuania’s Environmental Protection Department, we support civil society organizations, researchers, and initiatives addressing public-interest issues. We encourage academics, NGOs, NPOs, and other mission-driven organizations to join the initiative and gain free access to tools to support their research and broader missions. Tell us about your data needs through our form or via 4beta@oxylabs.io.

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About the author

Narmin Mammadova

PR Content Manager

Narmin is the PR Content Manager for Project 4β at Oxylabs. She enjoys the challenge of getting people to care, and pro bono work gives her good stories to tell. In her spare time, she travels whenever possible or indulges her love of poetry and reciting.

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