Worth knowing! On upcoming and current events
At the Līgatne nature trails a new exhibition, “What was rustling in the forest?”, has been open since December
From 2 to 31 January, the photography exhibition “Meadows in motion: a year on the Lielupe” at Jelgava City Library
Until 31 January secondary school pupils are invited to take part in the “LVM Bioeconomy School” scholarship competition
On 29 January 2025 a discussion on managing the red deer population
27–29 March 2025, the 12th Baltic Theriological Conference “Baltic mammals in the turbulence of anthropogenic tensions”
Industry news
Kristīna Sprūdža, head of the family business “Maizes māja” and winner of the “Zelta čiekurs 2023” award in the “For sustainable forest management” category, is one of the forest owners whose family property is directly affected by the new GNP regulations. She points to a series of problems and uncertainties connected with the introduction of these changes and with communication between the responsible authorities and landowners.
The Director General of the State Forest Service has declared a mass outbreak of the European spruce bark beetle in the forest, in force until the end of 2025. This year, too, measures to protect valuable spruce stands and restrictions on economic activity will apply across the entire territory of the country.
Next year the situation in the timber industry will depend largely on the European Central Bank's (ECB) decisions on interest rates, as well as on how the public and businesses react and how well they are able to adapt to the new conditions, said Andris Ramoliņš, owner and chairman of the board of the timber and forestry company SIA “Stiga RM”.
...I want to move in the direction of using as much timber as possible, building houses and exporting them all over the world, says Ģirts Draugs, founder and head of the wooden house manufacturer MyCabin.
To create suitable conditions for growing forest, AS “Latvijas valsts meži” has begun clearing ditch routes ahead of the reconstruction of the “Staldāti” forest drainage system in the Bauska district.
On the economy
To those expecting an economic surge in 2025, I wish patience – economic development happens in small steps, day by day, over the long term; not even in theory can a single year bring us up to the income level of the EU, or even of Lithuania or Estonia. And to those who expect “the end of the world” every year, I wish the courage to improve those things in their own lives and the lives of their loved ones that can be changed.
In 2025 we can expect gains in exports as well as in domestic demand and its main components. Even so, economic growth will still be slow, most likely a little under 2%. Fortunately, the preconditions are taking shape for a notable acceleration in 2026.
At this point it is clear that they evidently cannot go public with those results. They have to make some drastic changes. They will try to drop the routes that are less profitable. They will not close the profitable ones and go on flying the unprofitable ones. If those engines had been delivered on time and the aircraft now sitting on the ground could fly, then these routes might well be profitable...
Among the municipalities, the highest GDP per capita in 2022 was in Mārupe municipality (35.8 thousand euros), followed by Ropaži municipality (26.5 thousand euros) in second place and Ķekava municipality (18.6 thousand euros) in third. The top ten also includes the municipalities of Smiltene, Līvāni, Valmiera, Saldus, Dobele, Madona and Aizkraukle.
On environmental matters
In Latvia, 18% of the country's entire territory consists of specially protected nature areas. Nature reserves, national parks, nature parks, biosphere reserves, protected landscape areas, strict nature reserves, natural monuments and protected marine areas – the restrictions on economic activity differ in each category, but the aim is the same: to preserve natural assets.
On various goings-on
It is absolutely unforgivable that Knowyourlatvians did not make it into a single category at last year's Influencer of the Year awards, given that the account has twice as many followers as the official Latvian tourism profile. Perhaps this year Dainis's volunteering for Latvia's benefit will finally be noticed.
“There has been so much joy and love here – all the walls are full of positive energy, and that is why she is still standing,” says Kaucminde Manor's new owner, civil engineer Aiva Dreimane-Ozolzīle. She is determined to restore the 4,600 square metre building, which has 4 floors and 43 rooms.
Over the past three to ten years, Latvia's cultural heritage sector has grown truly weary and is crying out for radical change. It is not only specialists in the field who say so, but also the owners of cultural and historical sites.
Designer Sarmīte Poļakova takes an endlessly creative approach to turning production leftovers into new products. From pine bark she crafts exclusive PineSkins sheets, which are all but snapped up in architecture and design circles. Textile offcuts are transformed into refined wall panels and furniture surfaces with a pattern resembling marble.
In its blandness and predictability, Latvia's political elite is dull and even irritating. Even so, I am not convinced that we would prefer the kind of polarised atmosphere in which, for example, American or French society spent this year (and will most likely spend the next one too).
Sometimes a cartload of gifts is delivered over many years – just as criminal proceedings against particular individuals drag on for years. At the start of this century, the then-young generation of the Lembergs family received tens of millions of euros in gifts.
We put everything front and centre, and I think that has long since ceased to match what it used to be – the Latvian Song and Dance Festival, which is a tradition that must be preserved. But the procedure by which it is currently held, and so on, is very far from how I see this celebration.
The news in cartoons