### A study on horticulture and its impact on the surrounding environment by scientists from ten countries (including colleagues from Daugavpils University) – we invite you to support it by participating in a survey:

 

Although the Ministry of Agriculture has already planned a range of relief measures for farmers to overcome the negative consequences of the drought, the working group's experts unanimously agreed that this is not enough. Therefore, in the near future, taking into account all arguments, as well as listening to and analysing the farmers' own proposals for mitigating the consequences of this summer's difficult situation, proposals for several disaster management measures will be prepared and submitted for discussion to the Crisis Management Council.

 

On 27 June 2023, the Cabinet of Ministers approved a draft regulation prepared by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development (VARAM), under which funding is available to local governments for the development of innovative solutions to improve the efficiency of services provided by local governments in accordance with the Regional Policy Guidelines for 2021–2027. The planned total European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) funding is 15.52 million euros.

 

 

On Tuesday, 27 June, the government approved amendments to the forest protection regulations prepared by the Ministry of Agriculture (ZM), determining that the decision to declare a situation of mass reproduction of forest pests or the spread of diseases, as well as restrictions on economic activity and the measures to be implemented to combat pests and diseases or stop their spread, will henceforth be taken by the Director General of the State Forest Service (VMD).

 

On 29 June, version 1.4.0 of the “Mednis” app was released on app stores, featuring improved performance and fixes for a number of functional bugs – for example, “Android” system restarts due to memory issues, photo-taking errors, and some authentication problems.

 

In connection with the mass reproduction of the European spruce bark beetle, the Director General of the State Forest Service is declaring restrictions on forest management activities in valuable spruce stands across the entire territory of Latvia from 1 July to 1 September 2023.

 

The forest plays a vital role in ensuring biological diversity in the forest landscape, as well as in mitigating climate change and providing other ecosystem services. Old forests are rare in Europe, yet in a large part of Europe, including Latvia, there is a tendency for forest stands to age, which has resulted in a significant accumulation of biomass and, consequently, carbon, which is approaching saturation level. Along with work within the framework of the European Union (EU) climate policy, the role of old forests in maintaining biological diversity is also emphasised in the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030.

 

LVM senior environmental expert Uģis Bergmanis explains: “Similar to the lesser spotted eagle, the golden eagle usually raises only one young bird. The young eagles are ringed with coloured aluminium rings, which allow their origin to be determined from a distance.”

 

 

The Latvian Environmental Protection Fund Administration, in accordance with the decision of the meeting of the Latvian Environmental Protection Fund Council on 26 June 2023, is announcing a project competition for the activity “Cooperation projects for the development and implementation of environmental policy”. The goal of the competition is to provide financial support to projects to create practically usable results in the development and/or implementation of environmental protection policy.

 

Over the last month, there has been a significant increase in public interest in the Nature Conservation Agency's website www.invazivs.lv, which both collects information about dangerous invasive plant and animal species found in Latvia and their control, and provides an opportunity to report invasive species observed in nature to experts.

 

On Tuesday, the government supported amendments to the regulations “General Protection and Use Regulations for Specially Protected Nature Territories”, which “defined justified exceptional cases where the felling (removal) of protected trees is permissible even when it is necessary for the construction of various infrastructure of national importance”.

 

An atypically long drought, frequent heatwaves, or tropical nights – such uncharacteristic climatic changes have been observed most in the last decades. By now, more than 90% of scientists agree that human economic activity has caused the impact on the climate.

 

A dread of many crop growers – the European mole cricket, also known as the field cricket – has been recognised as a serious pest. Most of the life of this insect species takes place in a labyrinth of underground tunnels. Above ground, mole crickets appear rarely. However, there is one bird that is very good at tracking down this pest – it is the hoopoe.

 

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The Nature Conservation Agency (DAP) explained that the more than 150-year-old dendrological plantings in Pope, Ventspils municipality, were inspected and maintained last year. A contract has also been signed with the Ventspils municipality regarding the future longevity of the plantings, which provides for not carrying out activities that threaten the viability of the alley trees.

 

Project “For clean rivers”.

 

 

Grain growers are already predicting that the drought could have halved the expected harvest, and the drought has also affected the preparation of fodder. The drought has also affected potatoes in many places, but growers are not yet panicking, as the season is only in its first half, and they reason that we won't be left completely without potatoes this year, but what the harvest will be will depend on the weather hereafter.

 

Agriculture and climate technology company eAgronom has announced the raising of 5.5 million US dollars in funding to continue supporting the transition of farms to more sustainable agricultural practices.

 

Grain growers might only manage to harvest half of the planned crop this year, estimates the Cooperation Council of Agricultural Organisations. The damage caused by the prolonged drought is across the whole of Latvia, but in parts of the country, the lack of precipitation continues. Latvia wishes to achieve derogations from European Union (EU) regulations to facilitate the acquisition of fodder.

 

This year's strawberry harvest has been adversely affected by both spring frost and drought, yet the demand for Latvian-grown strawberries remains consistently high, the sector experts surveyed said. At the same time, strawberry growers admit that farms where strawberries are grown in open fields and which have problems attracting labour are largely considering reducing their areas.

 

The agricultural services cooperative society “Dundaga” has decided to stop the production of dairy products from July, said the chairman of the board of the cooperative society, Jānis Zadiņš.

 

 

In Ugāle parish, the collection of deposits has been suspended for several days, because cockroaches in a Tamro reverse vending machine have allegedly chewed a part, which must now be waited for until the machine is repaired. A similar problem with the small Tamro units is also said to exist elsewhere. “It is still incomprehensible to me why waste (smelly bottles), in which various pests multiply, must be accepted in a grocery store where goods are displayed right next to them. The Food and Veterinary Service regularly issues us penalty protocols, which we have to pay so that we don't have to close the shop,” says Sandra Akmeņlauka, representative of SIA Ebro.

 

 

I completely agree about business deals – in fact, there is a lot here that could be improved, because instead of an iron curtain, there is often a wire fence here. As for the curtain in people's consciousness, I have questions – I would love to hear a more precise definition of what the “Russian world” is, against which this curtain should be built. It seems easy to list, yet uncertainty arises as to whether such dangerous/unpleasant tendencies are specific to Russia and whether the West itself is immune to them – not to mention India and China.

 

...one of my first surprises was how complex human relationships with language and stories actually are. And what, for example, a person reads is influenced by everything that has happened to them in life. Because, by studying how people read, I usually highlight two categories – motivation and interpretation. There is a person's motivation to read, and the motivation to read specific books.

 

The first remark about what is happening in Russia as a rhetorical question: but what did you want, by distributing so many weapons to people who, let's put it this way, are quite indifferent to regulatory acts and official power in general?

 

We often have the feeling in Latvia that the question of the Baltic states did not really interest anyone, that there was nothing important there. Or, conversely, people believe that we destroyed the Soviet Union right here in Latvia. But the truth is somewhere in the middle: on the one hand, it was an international issue; on the other, all the Baltic states together contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union, not just Latvia.