A seminar on the Deforestation Regulation and its requirements

 

On 14 November 2024, the Employers' Confederation of Latvia (LDDK) Annual Awards were presented. In the category “For a company's contribution to strengthening defence — for support provided to advancing Ukraine's defence capabilities”, the award went to AS “Latvijas Finieris”.

 

I would encourage people to look at the question differently — because of excessive requirements, large volumes of quality, usable timber resources are already being lost every year, or, to put it more precisely, left to rot. The situation ought to change, and the Ministry of Agriculture's proposal to amend the regulation is the right one — a step in the right direction.

 

I remember that several years ago one politician very emotionally declared that we would see a spruce graveyard in the Gauja National Park. At that moment even Re:Check came down on him, and the initial premise was roughly that once again the wicked foresters were exaggerating everything…

 

The mineral extraction site has been established in the territory of the Ziemeļlatgale forest district, in Silmala parish, Rēzekne municipality.

 

 

 

In Latvia too, many of the main agricultural sectors have again suffered serious losses this year because of unfavourable weather. The situation is most severe in the grain-growing and the fruit and vegetable sectors, which experienced heavy frosts in May as well as torrential rain and gusts of wind in July that destroyed a large share of the sown agricultural crops.

 

The Director of the State Chancellery has decided to merge the Communications Department and the Strategic Communications Department, with the plan that nobody will lose their job; even so, some people who disagree with the changes will leave...

 

 

The State Forest Service invites hunters to take part in a survey developed by LVMI “Silava”, which aims to establish how large a role hunting and its related processes play in Latvia's national economy.

 

Lynx are being sighted ever more often, but are wolves becoming fearless?

 

 

Continuing to develop Sarkaņkalns as a place for education and active recreation, so as to give various groups in society the chance to learn about land and forest use and sustainable human interaction with the surrounding environment, the Birch Nature Trail has been created at Sarkaņkalns in Rēzekne municipality and was opened on 15 November.

 

The main task of all the working bees was to clear the shade from large-dimension trees in order to improve their growing conditions and make them more suitable for the rare and protected species that inhabit these trees. On the stony seashore of Vidzeme, for example, shade was cleared from veteran trees that are home to the protected species the hermit beetle.

 

Sosnowsky's hogweed is the first plant species officially defined as invasive in Latvia. It was once brought here as a fodder crop. Now there is no shortage of places in the country where this plant has settled.

 

All four damaged trail sections in the Gauja National Park that the Nature Conservation Agency closed at the end of October because of their unsatisfactory condition have been repaired. Nature tourists can now once again enjoy walks in the ancient Gauja valley around Sigulda: along the Piķene bluff on the trail from Velnala to Balonu meadow, up the wooden steps beside Gūtmaņala that lead to the ridge of the hill, on the wooden steps at Slakterkalns (not far from Turaida Castle) and along the Klauku Bay trail.

 

In October, environmental experts at AS “Latvijas valsts meži” (LVM) received word of a flightless eagle spotted by the side of the Tallinn highway. On arriving at the scene, LVM bird expert Aigars Kalvāns established that the bird was an injured adult white-tailed eagle that needed to be transported to the wild bird rehabilitation centre in Madona municipality so that this specially protected bird could be helped to recover and return to the wild.

 

 

The company notes that rail services on this route would allow residents of the Lithuanian town of Visaginas to visit Daugavpils more often, adding that the possibility of restoring this route is being discussed with Visaginas municipality.

 

However, given the limited amount of state budget funding available to compensate losses in 2025, there are currently no plans in 2025 to launch additional Liepāja and Dobele trains before 14 December 2025.

 

 

Minister of Economics Viktors Valainis (Union of Greens and Farmers) said he agreed with reducing the number of board members at the small ports, adding that there needs to be a review of why there were previously so many ministry representatives. “The Ministry of Agriculture representative could be kept, for instance, since fisheries fall within the ministry's remit. The function and place of each ministry representative on these boards has to be understood."

 

 

...the word “challenge” keeps up its triumphal march. Almost everything is a challenge these days, and the term is by now used as a descriptor too. “How do you like this job? It's challenging.”

 

It has already been reported that, under a council decision, the local authority will not change the spelling of the name Medemciems. The council considered the matter because the State Language Centre had called on the authority to adopt a decision without delay on amending the spelling of the official place name — the settlement name “Medemciems” — to the form “Mēdemciems”.