The sector

https://www.zm.gov.lv/lv/jaunums/zemkopibas-ministrs-armands-krauze-rosina-veikt-izmainas-normativaja-regulejuma-godigas-konkurences-nodrosinasanai
Minister for Agriculture Armands Krauze met the Chair of the Competition Council, Ieva Šmite, to discuss possible competition concerns surrounding the sale of timber resources by AS “Latvijas valsts meži”.

https://www.zemeunvalsts.lv/briviba-nav-mantojums-ta-ir-misija
The result is a society fragmenting into ever smaller groupings, each trying to forge its own identity, which in the information space creates ideal ground for ever new and ever wider rifts.

https://www.zm.gov.lv/lv/jaunums/apbalvos-meza-nozares-labakos-profesionalus
On 3 December the “Ziemeļblāzma” culture palace will host the awards ceremony honouring the laureates of the forest sector's annual “Zelta čiekurs 2025” prize.

https://www.db.lv/zinas/investe-100-miljonus-eiro-razotne-latgale-524140
...state support of 10 million euros has been secured for building the new plant, which is not a small sum, yet its share of the project's total costs is less than 10%.

https://tv3.lv/zinas/latvija/neka-personiga/bijusais-zemkopibas-ministrs-didzis-smits-kokrupnieku-krize-2023-gada-bija-uzpusta/
Both the Minister for Agriculture and the former State Secretary Raivis Kronbergs, who now heads the State Chancellery, say in interviews that the government's accommodation of the timber industry was considered and well founded.

https://tv3.lv/zinas/latvija/neka-personiga/bijusais-zemkopibas-ministrs-didzis-smits-kokrupnieku-krize-2023-gada-bija-uzpusta/
At the closed government sitting there is not a word about the existence of logging contracts with even longer terms...

https://www.lsm.lv/raksts/zinas/ekonomika/20.11.2025-silina-latvijas-valsts-mezu-parvaldiba-varetu-iesaistities-vel-divas-ministrijas.a623080/
In 2023, because of the war in Ukraine, timber industry representatives raised the alarm about the potential future and asked for more favourable prices for buying materials.

https://www.delfi.lv/video/54057146/kapec/120096446/kapec-ar-alinu-lastovsku-vai-atbalsts-kokrupniekiem-bija-sabiedribas-intereses
The associations representing the sector approached LVM, demanding a reduction in the auctioned timber prices, but the company's management refused, pointing out that this would be not only uneconomic but also unlawful, since such a decision would reduce LVM's profit and, in acting this way, they would be squandering state funds.

https://www.db.lv/zinas/katra-piekta-lapu-koku-saplaksna-loksne-pasaule-ir-ievesta-no-latvijas-524180
In 2024 Latvia's share of hardwood plywood exports was 5%, but in terms of export earnings per capita Latvia ranked first in the world.

https://www.lsm.lv/raksts/kultura/dizains-un-arhitektura/27.11.2025-kapec-buvet-no-koka-arhitekturas-gada-balvas-laureati-stasta-par-planetai-draudzigu-arhitekturu.a623721/
The first thing that is important to understand is that the way the ancient Latvians built hundreds of years ago, the houses you can see at the Open-Air Museum — that is not the same timber as is used in building today. Industrial technologies are now available that make it possible to build from wood very quickly, efficiently, precisely and also to a high standard.

https://zz.lv/vietejas-zinas/lietkoku-cemodana-nodarbibas-iepazist-koksnes-ipasibas-un-tas-pielietojumu-musdienu-tehnologijas/
In a Year 9 physics lesson at Jelgava Technology Secondary School, pupils studied the density of various types of wood in depth, worked hands-on with two-component adhesive, learned about types of composite materials and used a force lever to test the strength of the wooden blanks they had glued themselves.

https://www.apollo.lv/8360199/vai-kompensacijas-mehanismi-meza-ipasniekiem-latvija-ir-taisnigi
...a forest manager is compensated less than 100 euros per hectare a year for lost income.

Militant foolishness is hampered by knowledge

https://www.lsm.lv/raksts/zinas/latvija/25.11.2025-ka-macit-skoleniem-par-mezu-vides-organizacijas-kritize-latvijas-valsts-mezu-izveidotos-macibu-materialus.a623799/
Each piece of material is made for a particular theme. Forest expeditions, for example, are built around the theme of how we use forest resources. In this case we depict the full cycle, including the conservation of biological diversity.

...

https://lasi.lv/par-svarigo/pasaule/zanders-runa-ukrainu-apdraud-ari-banals-21-gadsimta-cilveku-stulbums.34926
If we talk about European societies in the broader sense, it is clearly felt that scepticism and dislike towards Ukraine are driven by a deep conviction that, so to speak, Russian tanks will not reach Paris or Naples anyway. You would have to be exceptionally alternatively gifted not to grasp that people from Russia's intelligence services, or the characters they recruit, can stage acts of sabotage in Portugal or Corsica too. Whether, say, the loss of electricity and the internet is a lesser misfortune than the symbolic tanks is a moot point, because people today are too indulged in comfort to put up with inconveniences lasting longer than two days.

https://radioswh.lv/sabiedriba/zinu-detektivs-dezinformacija-igaunija-prokremliski-narativi-sabiedribas-skelsana-un-kulturas-atcelsanas-meginajumi/
...information attacks on Estonia have become continuous and multi-layered. This issue was also thrown into sharp relief by a very recent event in Tallinn, where a concert by the American band “Limp Bizkit” was cancelled after criticism was prompted by frontman Fred Durst's expressed support for the annexation of Crimea.

17 January, seminar “Ask your land drainage specialist!” at Smiltene Technical School
https://www.smiltenestehnikums.lv/news-info/1764156196/

Official

https://www.varam.gov.lv/lv/jaunums/eiropas-komisija-publicejusi-tiesibu-aktu-pakotni-digitalais-omnibuss
The package includes proposals for regulations, among them a proposal for a regulation on simplifying digital legislation, a proposal for a regulation on simplifying artificial intelligence rules and a proposal for a regulation on establishing an EU Business Wallet.

https://lvportals.lv/dienaskartiba/383374-jauns-likums-paredz-iespeju-attistit-zalas-degvielas-razosanu-latvija-2025
Latvia already has a comparatively high share of renewable energy in the electricity and heating sectors, but in the transport sector Latvia imports fossil fuels.

https://www.lvm.lv/jaunumi/7803-pieskirta-latvijas-valsts-mezu-stipendija-maksla-2025
The 15 works by the finalists of the art scholarship competition are interesting in their diversity: from painting to graphic art and sculpture.

https://www.lbtu.lv/lv/raksts/2025-11-21/lbtu-atkartoti-ieklust-qs-pasaules-universitasu-ilgtspejibas-reitinga-un-uzrada
In total, the ranking analysed 2,002 universities from around the world, including 621 European higher education institutions and four Latvian higher education institutions.

Research

https://www.zemeunvalsts.lv/uzsakts-petijums-peattransform-latvijas-kudras-nozares
Peat is an important Latvian natural resource, widely used in horticulture, forestry and agriculture, both on the domestic market and for export.

There is only so much money...

https://www.varam.gov.lv/lv/jaunums/dabas-aizsardzibas-parvalde-izsludina-metu-konkursu-gaujas-nacionala-parka-dabas-centra-attistibai
The Nature Conservation Agency is announcing an open design competition, “Gauja National Park Nature Centre”, inviting interested parties to develop a high-quality and sustainable design for the reconstruction of the Gauja National Park nature centre building...

Work and law

https://lvportals.lv/dienaskartiba/383137-vairak-neka-20-nozaru-darba-deveju-organizaciju-uzsver-nepieciesamibu-grozit-darba-likumu-2025
The amendments proposed by employers would ensure precisely planned and balanced workloads, as well as appropriately compensated pay for the employee, an incentive for employers to keep accurate records of working time, and tax revenue for the state.

Hunting

https://www.medibam.lv/uzmanibu-dap-izstradajis-vadlinijas-medniekiem-un-mezstradniekiem-par-bruno-laci
https://www.daba.gov.lv/lv/media/17012/download – the signs of its presence, its winter dens and how to act safely if a bear is encountered by chance.

https://www.vmd.gov.lv/lv/jaunums/noteiktas-teritorijas-dzinejmedibas-staltbriezu-govis-vares-medit-ar-telu-medibu-atlaujam
In order to encourage red deer hunting with beaters, from 1 December it is permitted in designated recording units to hunt red deer hinds during drive hunts, using red deer calf hunting permits.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZZSLlScLFU
Šauj garām! #311 ...illegal hunting, the problem of dogs, the shooting of a bear, and the amendments to the Hunting Law being advanced in the Saeima

https://www.medibam.lv/medibas-ir-loti-gars-process-un-saviens-ir-pats-pedejais-mednieks-un-dabas-draugs-aivars-liepkalns
My hunting career began the moment I started walking. My father took me everywhere with him. I began going regularly to drive hunts as a beater at the age of seven.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNfvx1iJjUU
Meža ziņas #19

Environment

https://www.daba.gov.lv/lv/jaunums/dabas-aizsardzibas-parvalde-aicina-izteikt-pilnveides-priekslikumus-par-izstradatajiem-biotopu-aizsardzibas-planiem
Experts from the Nature Conservation Agency's LatViaNature project have drawn up conservation plans for five groups of habitats of European Union importance, in order to secure their favourable conservation status in the country over the long term.

https://www.daba.gov.lv/lv/jaunums/aicina-uz-aizsargajamo-juras-teritoriju-dabas-aizsardzibas-plana-sabiedrisko-apspriesanu-salacgriva-kemeros-kolka-un-gaviezes-pagasta
The Nature Conservation Agency is holding public consultation meetings on the nature conservation plan for protected marine areas.

https://www.lvm.lv/jaunumi/7800-atjaunots-segums-lozmetejkalna-celam
In November the final works were completed on the renovation of the AS “Latvijas valsts meži” forest road “Ložmetējkalna ceļš” in Valgunde parish. During the works, the surface of the publicly important Ložmetējkalns road was renewed over a considerable length of more than 4.3 kilometres and several further road improvements were carried out.

https://lvceli.lv/aktuali/valsts-celu-tikla-veic-aleju-inventarizaciju-un-apseko-vairak-neka-2500-koku/
Under the LIFE OSMO BALTIC project, 16 avenues on the national road network are currently being surveyed and inventoried, covering a total of 2,621 trees in the areas of Limbaži, Jēkabpils, Aizkraukle, Jelgava, Dobele, Kuldīga, Talsi and Liepāja.

Enviable foresight

https://www.lsm.lv/raksts/kultura/kulturtelpa/21.11.2025-pec-desmit-gadus-ilgas-tiesasanas-strids-par-koncertzali-riga-nav-atrisinats-ta-paliek-slegta.a623362/
...the former concert hall is currently simply an empty space: “It has to be designed and built anew, just as we are sitting here, where perhaps some sort of foundation has already been laid for it all beforehand.”

Miscellaneous

https://www.lsm.lv/raksts/dzive-stils/vesture/21.11.2025-vesture-nevis-atkartojas-bet-rimejas-saruna-ar-vesturnieku-karli-silu-par-latvijas-pagatnes-atskanam.a623198/
It is certainly not something to be taken for granted. Nor is it an accident. If we look at how Latvia could come into being 107 years ago, then the preconditions for people in the territory of Latvia, already in Latvia, to be able to organise themselves successfully into an independent state had to some extent taken shape as much as two or three generations earlier.

https://www.lsm.lv/raksts/kultura/kulturtelpa/24.11.2025-kapec-populisti-karo-savaldit-kulturas-nozari-saruna-par-notikumiem-lietuva-un-citviet.a622568/
Although part of the public has expressed puzzlement as to why the events in Lithuania are not talked about enough, there may also be some people who would ask the question: why should we think about what is happening in Lithuania's domestic politics and does not directly affect us?

https://bauskasdzive.lv/lietotaju-raksti/pless-energetiska-neatkariba-ko-izvelesies-saeima/
At present the price of electricity in Latvia is formed in a similar way – expensive gas sets the price level. And as long as the share of wind capacity remains low, dependence on imports and geopolitical risks persists. This is not merely a technical or political matter – it is a problem of our economic resilience and security.

https://inc-baltics.com/valsts-kontrolei-varetu-but-grutibas-revidet-maf-jo-mediju-projektu-vertesana-piedalas-valsts-kontroliera-sieva/
The Prime Minister's parliamentary secretary Karina Ploka and communications adviser Anna Ūdre did not answer Inc.'s question as to whether the Prime Minister had asked for SIF to be assessed, but the State Audit Office does not deny it, noting that “Ms Ploka did at one time prompt the State Audit Office to carry out an audit at the Society Integration Foundation in order to give the State Audit Office's opinion on one particular allocation by the foundation to one association.”

https://www.lsm.lv/raksts/dzive-stils/cilvekstasti/26.11.2025-no-skaistumkopsanas-saloniem-valmiera-lidz-liellopiem-brengulos-pec-krizes-macibam-maija-zvirbule-saimnieko-leni-bet-pamatigi.a623534/
I like to work, to create something all the time, to build something, to develop something… My grandmother had cows and she too did hard work, and my grandfather did hard work. Perhaps that is where the persistence and toughness come from.

Current affairs in cartoons

https://www.lasi.lv/par-svarigo/karikatura/zime-gatis-sluka-nojaukt-nenojaukt.34930

https://www.diena.lv/raksts/diena-citi/karikaturista-skats/nosedinatas-cigaretes-14344650

https://www.diena.lv/raksts/diena-citi/karikaturista-skats/karikaturas-izaicinajumi-digitalo-mediju-pasaule-14344716

https://www.lasi.lv/par-svarigo/karikatura/zime-gatis-sluka-nacionalais-svetcelojums.34877