One of the points in the recently approved state budget for 2026 provides that “Latvijas valsts meži” will pay a specific sum of money into the State Treasury next year. Will that be straightforward?
On that score I foresee a number of challenges that we will have to handle successfully. For example, we cannot clearly forecast the situation on the timber market or timber prices. The creation of new specially protected nature territories and possible additional habitat protection requirements, as well as the government's possible decision to use state forests for compensation to private forest owners, also create additional uncertainty and risks for meeting and achieving the targets set for us.
The company has long-term and short-term development plans. Do the conditions on paying a set sum of money into the state budget and the factors you mention that restrict economic activity affect, change or hold back these plans in any way?
We have changed our development plans for 2026 in several areas, revising planned investment volumes, for example for forest roads and for the restoration and construction of drainage systems. The change of plans is to some extent also connected with a review of the company's planning process and its project assessment process. Investment will decrease in various directions; we hope that in the coming years it will be possible to increase the volume again.
How significantly will the change of plans affect the company's work?
We try to plan and act so that the impact is as positive as possible. If we talk about forest roads, the network of main roads has been built and works well, whereas new roads will be built in places where there is the strongest economic justification for it, with a very detailed and careful assessment of the return on investment. The road construction plan that was set, calculated and planned earlier will not be fulfilled. In fact, we assess all the investments that would be needed and that are being planned according to their economic return.
Structural changes at the company have been talked about for about a year. How long will they continue?
As regards structural changes, you are right, they have been going on for quite some time. In terms of areas of responsibility and the division of work, this process is rapidly nearing completion, and the new (reorganised) units are operating. The next phase we are working on is reviewing and streamlining processes, in order to assign a specific person responsible for each process and to eliminate any possible duplication of functions or responsibilities. The main task for 2026 is to make forest management and the other processes more efficient, as was intended.
Speaking of the expected restrictions on economic activity, can “Latvijas valsts meži” plan anything on the basis of requirements and rules that are already known, or is it all fluid and changeable?
At the moment we are working in several directions. One is connected with implementing the Cabinet of Ministers' minuted decisions on habitat protection, under which “Latvijas valsts meži” has to ensure protection of a specific percentage of the total habitat area in state forests, including by creating new specially protected nature territories, which we are doing in cooperation with VARAM and the Nature Conservation Agency (DAP). Specific areas have been selected and coordination between the relevant institutions is under way; specifically, this concerns the withdrawal of around 50,000 ha from economic use. The second very important issue is connected with overall nature conservation policy in Europe, ensuring favourable status for habitats and species, which essentially means moving towards what is known as a dynamic nature conservation system. On the latter, the most important thing needed at present is understanding from DAP and VARAM — that is, that the approach we have modelled and put forward should also be comprehensible and usable as others see it; otherwise the volume of resources available to us for timber production will fall very substantially.
Dynamic nature conservation, as is well known, is held in high regard by our near neighbours – in Scandinavia. Is explanation still needed about things the industry knows and has put to both DAP and VARAM at least 8 years ago?
Explanation is needed, because dynamic nature conservation affects the principles of ecological landscape planning. For example, there are protected nature territories that are marked out on the ground and exist as nature reserves over the long term. Dynamic nature conservation means that in the remaining territories, which also contain protectable habitats, protection is set in time or economic activity is restricted in time, with lower-value habitats being replaced by higher-value ones. In short, we have specific quantitative and qualitative indicators that are used across the whole territory of Latvia to protect natural values and biological diversity, but the spatial distribution of those areas is dynamic (changeable).
What do you think next year will be like? Plenty of work, plenty of discussion, plenty of calculation. What else?
I will use that word again – dynamic – which is how I expect 2026 to be. Much will depend on the timber markets mentioned and the situation on them, much will be determined by geopolitics, and European Union environmental policy is and will be highly influential. This week, too, we were writing objections to a new European Commission proposal that could very substantially affect the whole of Latvian industry. The recently discussed proposals for amendments to the Criminal Law will also be on the agenda – how impact on nature will be interpreted, given that it can carry criminal liability and a prison sentence of up to 8 years.
You are also a forest scientist. In your view, is Latvian forest science lacking anything and, if the answer is yes, what exactly?
Firstly, there is a lack of courage to stand up for making research findings public and communicating with society regularly. There is a lack of courage to use the information and conclusions obtained in research to take part in sharper discussions or political debates as well. If we look at EU policy and environmental policy in particular, you could say that scientists are like soldiers whose weapons are publications. The fight is over who has the strongest arguments. Our forest scientists need the confidence to be researchers and promoters of their own work, and to some extent entrepreneurs as well.
I would also like to stress that potential commissioners of research often do not understand the extent to which research can improve and develop their business. By investing in specific knowledge and technologies, it is possible to improve or change the situation, but... it will not always be quick.