In order to promote effective cooperation between hunters and holders of hunting rights, and to jointly reduce the damage caused by wild animals to agriculture, forestry and fisheries, a memorandum of cooperation has been concluded between several of the parties involved.
The memorandum was signed on 18 June by the Ministry of Agriculture, AS “Latvijas valsts meži” (LVM), and the associations “Latvijas Mednieku asociācija”, “Latvijas Mednieku savienība”, “Latgales mednieku un makšķernieku biedrība”, “Latvijas Meža īpašnieku biedrība”, “Zemnieku saeima”, “Lauksaimniecības organizāciju sadarbības padome” and “Mazjūras zvejnieki”, with each participant undertaking to fulfil specific commitments.
Minister for Agriculture Armands Krauze:
“The damage caused by wild animals in agriculture and forestry, as well as the losses arising from collisions with road traffic, is a significant problem for which solutions must be found on the basis of cooperation. The memorandum signed today is an important step that brings together farmers, forest owners, hunters and state institutions in pursuit of a common goal – balanced management of wild animal populations. We have taken into account the experience of previous years and improved the terms so that cooperation is more effective, more focused and based on clear criteria. The Ministry of Agriculture will provide the necessary regulatory framework to ensure that the proposals discussed are implemented and deliver results.”
Guntis Ščepaniks, head of the hunting rights leasing process at LVM, explains:
“In drawing up the new memorandum, we have taken previous experience into account and improved a number of the terms of cooperation so that together we can achieve the goal that has been set. Unlike its predecessors, the new memorandum brings together a wider circle of parties, in recognition of the fact that an excessive density of game animals causes substantial damage both to foresters, by irreversibly damaging newly planted trees and creating considerable financial losses, and in agriculture, with red deer destroying sown crops and predators threatening farm animals.”
The memorandum sets out specific criteria against which the achievement of the goals in all sectors can be assessed. In forestry, a maximum permissible volume of damaged trees and area of damaged stands has been set; in agriculture, the extent of damage caused to agricultural crops and the required reduction in predator attacks on farm animals; while in hunting the goal set is a red deer population size to be reached within five years – 35,000, which is equivalent to the number of animals of this species in 2010.
To achieve the goals that have been set, all the parties involved undertake to carry out particular measures. For example, holders of hunting rights undertake to facilitate access to hunting areas in order to make it easier to organise the hunting process and to remove game, to develop land management practices aimed at reducing the risk of damage by game animals, and, when carrying out forestry operations, to preserve the animals' food base as far as possible. Hunters, in turn, undertake to find swift and effective solutions for reducing damage recorded by the holder of hunting rights, where necessary also involving the users of hunting rights in neighbouring areas. The Ministry of Agriculture undertakes to ensure that decisions are taken and administrative acts issued within the framework of the regulatory enactments. All the measures to be carried out by the parties involved in order to achieve the goals can be read in the memorandum.
The parties to the memorandum also agree to jointly review progress in implementing the memorandum at least once a year and to consider matters relating to the further promotion and improvement of mutual cooperation.
With the signing of the new memorandum, the previous one, concluded in 2017, has ceased to be in force.