Using a financially lucrative scheme involving the creation of new micro-reserves, the Latvian Fund for Nature and the Latvian Ornithological Society are blocking more and more areas from economic activity, and it is not only private owners who are suffering. Losses are also being inflicted on local municipalities.

Mālpils municipality has acquired five micro-reserves in a short period of time. One is dedicated to the black stork, while four are for the lesser spotted eagle. Municipal executive director Agris Bukovskis says that the losses to economic activity are quite concretely calculable. For example, a notification from the State Forest Service regarding a black stork micro-reserve was received one day before a scheduled timber auction. The auction was cancelled, and the municipal budget missed out on approximately 100,000 euros. This, of course, is without counting the money and effort invested in forest maintenance. There will be no new forest planted in its place, and the existing one will slowly decay.