On 4 June, an online conference entitled "Latvian Land – Long-term Development Perspectives" was held, organised by the Farmers' Parliament (LOSP), agricultural cooperative VAKS, and the development finance institution ALTUM, in partnership with the publisher "Dienas Bizness".
In the first part, which focused primarily on agriculture and European Union agricultural policy, both the European Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski (Janusz Wojciechowski) and the Latvian Minister of Agriculture Kaspars Gerhards spoke about EU multi-annual budget planning, support programmes for agriculture, and the equality of farmers in EU member states in receiving financial support.
Continuing the first part, while discussing Latvian farmers and balanced land management, a less-known circumstance emerged in the discussion: Latvian farmers praised the seemingly better position of foresters, noting that both in Latvia and elsewhere in Europe, farmers are perceived not as "growers and producers of our daily bread", but as "wrongdoers who destroy rather than create through their work". It was emphasised that farmers must communicate more about their work, even by inviting schoolchildren to observe and understand how work is carried out on farms!
Indulis Jansons, Chairman of the Board of the agricultural cooperative VAKS, took an optimistic view of agriculture, highlighting the generational change and the influx of young people into the sector, while also praising the traditions of farming families.
The second part of the conference focused more on forestry, its future, development, and challenges. Forestry processes are also unclear and difficult for a segment of the public to understand, and a certain degree of confusion is caused by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development (VARAM), which views management only from "the other side," with poor orientation or a lack of understanding of long-term forestry planning. Specifically, VARAM speaks of habitat mapping but cannot say what will happen once the results are compiled or what will be done with those results. VARAM avoids responsibility for its policy regarding micro-reserves (which is the direct responsibility of the ministry), and the ministry pretends to work on compensation and flexible protection mechanisms, shifting the responsibility—at least for now—onto others, rather than the environmental policymakers. The main problem for forestry at present is uncertainty and a political desire to solve problems at the expense of the forest owner or manager, while pretending that these issues do not affect anyone else!