Worth knowing! On upcoming and current events
On 5 December at the LBTU Faculty of Forest and Environmental Sciences
The 9th LMSP International Conference “Scientific, economic and social aspects of natural resource use in the current environmental and geopolitical context”
From 1 November to 15 December we invite you to choose the European Tree of the Year in Latvia
Until 13 December an exhibition of works by Latvian Academy of Art students, “Latvijas valsts meži Scholarship in Art 2024”
On 28 November, the Ministry of Agriculture's Forestry Conference
From 18 May, the exhibition “From the birch seed to betulin” at the Museum of Pharmacy
27-29 March 2025, the 12th Baltic Theriological Conference “Baltic mammals in the turbulence of anthropogenic tensions”
On industry matters
In response to concerns voiced by EU member states, third countries, traders and market operators that they would not be able to apply the new rules in full within the set timeframe, the European Commission has proposed postponing the regulation's start date of application by one year.
Jaunlaicene parish, home to around 300 residents, is also home to the CEWOOD plant, which employs more than 160 people from both Alūksne district and other districts. The company's asset is its motivated staff, who have become a united and purposeful team.
The State Forest Service reports that from November the cadastral valuation of forests and forest land can be obtained electronically from the State Forest Register.
https://www.lsm.lv/raksts/zinas/latvija/12.11.2024-vispirms-kompensaciju-sistemu-meza-ipasnieki-aicina-apturet-gaujas-nacionala-parka-jauno-regulejumu.a576001/
Landowners also took an active part in the public consultation on the new regulatory framework, and 40 proposals on the planned changes were submitted. Several in-person meetings were also held in October in Krimulda, Sigulda, Priekuļi and elsewhere, where many questions were raised. Meanwhile, the Forest Owners' Association is calling for work on the regulations to be halted, and around 150 owners have signed a petition to that effect.
It is now known that small walnut orchards will also be established in three parishes of Kuldīga district – Snēpele, Turlava and Rumba – and next year in Skrunda as well. The trees will reach full yield after roughly eight years.
What will become of the green course and climate neutrality in Latvia? Forestry and agriculture
On environmental matters
In the course of administrative proceedings, the State Environmental Service managed to identify the company responsible, which holds a waste management permit, including for the collection and transport of hazardous waste. In Latvia, permits of this kind have been issued to 19 companies.
The Emission Allowance Auctioning Instrument consists of funds raised from auctioning the emission allowances allocated to Latvia, which are to be channelled into measures that help meet climate targets. An emission allowance is a permit to emit greenhouse gases, granted to companies and countries by the European Union in order to limit emissions and combat climate change.
...the transition to green production is a priority for Schwenk Latvija, because it is the only possible way of operating in the future and a precondition for the company's competitiveness in Latvia and in export markets.
State subsidies for some and tax breaks for others, spent on expensive and unnecessary measures, only distort normal, competition-based business practice in this process and lead to inefficiently used – in effect wasted – resources of money and people's time.
With the nesting season over, the cleaning of installed nest boxes and minor repair work continues in the forests in November as well.
A total of 382 photographs were submitted to the competition, all taken in one of Latvia's protected nature areas of European importance. Some of the photographs will be used in a unique book-journal and in a calendar for 2025.
Nature conservation is a tool that is at times used to solve all manner of problems.
On hunters and resistance
The book's author, security and resilience specialist and Rīga Stradiņš University researcher Vitālijs Rakstiņš, notes that hunters will be the first to receive the Handbook, but its target audience is every resident of Latvia loyal to our country who wishes to strengthen the state's defence capabilities and acquire new skills.
On hunting
“Since the court's decision is not final, it means that anti-hunters are misleading the public by saying that bear hunting in Estonia has been declared unlawful across the board!” explains Linda Dombrovska, editor-in-chief of the magazine Medības.
...shortly after wolf hunting was suspended, farmers wrote an official letter to the prime minister demanding that the situation be put right and that sensible wolf management begin, warning that otherwise the sheep-farming sector can no longer survive in Estonia because of the wolves.
On the train
Much delayed, but the promised train to Bolderāja in Rīga will happen after all. Two additional stations have to be built on the line, and these are now starting to take real shape. What kind of trains might run on the route, and how often?
On the interesting
...while searching for the paintings by the great landscape artist Vilhelms Purvītis that went missing in Germany in 1944, a painting by the Latvian artist Jānis Roberts Tillbergs, “Latvian Girl”, which was taken out of Latvia in 1942, was found in the Schleswig museum. An agreement has been reached on the restitution process, and Tillbergs' painting will soon return to Latvia.
The idea of a bioregion is familiar in Latvia to those who follow life in Cēsis district. The bioregion idea in the Cēsis area involves an agreement between the local authority, its residents and businesses to manage the land organically and circularly, without depleting the riches of Gauja National Park. Bioregional practice can be spoken of in architecture too.
...the Senate of the Supreme Court recently reported on its website a case in which a student had lodged an application with the administrative court, complaining about a lecturer's disparaging attitude in email correspondence and asking for compensation for the harm caused.
If we are talking about the development of the humanities at university level, then in my view the greatest misfortune at present is financial difficulties. It is surely clear that no enterprise can develop without investment.
Nearly all of us probably know that a water meter needs replacing from time to time, because it may no longer measure the amount of water used correctly. But there are many other everyday measuring instruments that the law requires to be re-measured, or calibrated, on a regular basis. One of them is the wooden ruler used, for example, by seamstresses or in fabric shops.
The bureaucracy typical of the EU, meanwhile – the elevation of process over result, the sidestepping of geopolitical questions in the name of “European unanimity” – is simply incomprehensible to many across the ocean. In 2020, present at the visit of Trump's Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to the European Parliament, I witnessed this bafflement: if you say you are against Putin, then perhaps stop building Nord Stream 2 for Russian gas?
Current affairs in cartoons
