Before the end of the year, an extraordinary meeting will take place where the newly appointed council of “Latvijas valsts meži” will select an interim replacement for Roberts Strīpnieks – the company's founder and long-standing leader – from among the remaining board members. The captain is leaving the ship ahead of schedule, and, for the time being at least, there is no indication that this is a good sign.

Ever since officials from fields unrelated to forestry were appointed to the company's council in place of forestry experts, there has been anxiety in industry corridors that the new board will be constructed in a similar manner, and then, God only knows how the company will be managed going forward. There are several critical decisions ahead regarding the green populism course adopted by Europe, and it would not be in our country's interest if, by prioritising the promotion of biodiversity, economic activity were relegated to secondary importance, thereby depleting the state budget. Even more unacceptable are the interests represented by the Foreign Investors' Council in Latvia (FICIL), which, through the government's Cross-Sectoral Coordination Centre, is urging the government to sell off Latvia's large state-owned enterprises by listing them on the stock exchange.
Photo: Donal Boyd