Twenty-six years ago – on 28 October 1999 – the joint-stock company “Latvijas valsts meži” (LVM) was founded. Over these years, LVM has become one of Latvia's largest companies, with a turnover of more than half a billion euros. A healthy, well-tended forest also makes a substantial contribution to reducing CO₂ emissions in Latvia and to mitigating climate change.
By responsibly balancing economic, environmental and recreational interests, LVM's business performance over 26 years has also delivered steady and steadily growing payments into the state budget in the form of taxes and dividends: since its founding, the company has paid 2.1 billion euros to the state.
The timber stock in Latvia's state forests is growing and currently stands at 338 million cubic metres. Latvian-grown timber used in construction also increases Latvia's overall CO₂ sequestration, helping to mitigate climate change. Each year, as the forest grows, the timber stock increases by 11.3 million cubic metres. In the forests managed by LVM, the accumulated timber stock is more than ten times greater than the annual felling volume.
Since the company was founded, forests have been regenerated and newly established across 335 thousand hectares of Latvia's state forests. Recognising young people's wish to learn practical skills out in nature, almost 196 thousand pupils and teachers have taken part in the annual forest environmental education programmes.
Although forestry is LVM's main field of activity, the company also develops other lines of business: it produces selectively bred seed and grows forest planting stock, manages subsoil resources, looks after forest infrastructure, provides recreation services, and develops geospatial data services.
LVM manages 180 mineral extraction sites, which supply high-quality subsoil resources – peat, sand, and sand-gravel – for the needs of the national economy and the company's own construction work. The mineral materials obtained have been used both for infrastructure projects of public importance and for private construction projects. LVM's customers rate highly the quality of materials meeting construction product requirements, thanks to the fact that the production process for mineral materials and their mixtures complies with internationally recognised standards. Since the company was founded, forest roads with a total length of 8.8 thousand kilometres have been brought into service and forest drainage systems have been restored across a total of 314 thousand hectares.
To ensure high-quality planting stock for tomorrow's forests, LVM's tree nurseries, covering a total area of 359 ha, grow pine, spruce, birch, black alder and other seedlings. Over these years, LVM has grown and sold 991 million forest seedlings – more than 530 seedlings for every resident of Latvia!
LVM GEO, the geospatial information technology platform developed by LVM, is one of the most comprehensive and important geospatial solutions in the country. In 2025, digital e-waybill handling was introduced into the timber flow, offline map functionality was developed for the LVM GEO mobile app, a new mobile app was created for silviculture partners, and active work was carried out on determining forest inventory and stand vitality parameters from remote sensing data. LVM GEO platform services are used daily by more than 45 customers in Latvia and export markets.
Sustainable forest management is now unthinkable without the use of the latest technology. Data-driven decisions based on skilled pilots, data gathered by unmanned aerial vehicles – drones – and the use of what they make possible, are becoming an integral part of everyday work. Drones are currently used across all LVM business lines, increasing the efficiency and quality of work.
Over 26 years, the area the company manages with the primary aim of increasing biological diversity has grown significantly: from 5% of its territory in 2001 to more than 26% in 2025. LVM cares for 23 different types of forest, bog, grassland, dune and water habitats covering 122.8 thousand hectares. As LVM's environmental experts survey planned operational sites each year – for example, planned forest road construction sites and mineral extraction sites – ever more habitats of European Union importance and localities of specially protected species are recorded in state forest areas. This makes it possible to improve LVM's planning of voluntary nature conservation areas, and it can also serve to improve the specially protected nature territories designated by the state. At the same time, LVM carries out monitoring of bird species that occupy large nests (the golden eagle, the lesser spotted eagle, the black stork and others), of the capercaillie, and of several specially protected plant, lichen and fungus species.
Alongside its annual habitat and species habitat management work, since 2021 the company has also been actively involved in environmental projects with external co-funding. In one of them – “LIFE GoodWater IP” – the on-the-ground works aimed at improving water quality in the Aģe river basin have already been completed; the biotechnical measures to improve habitat quality under “LIFE-IP LatViaNature” are rapidly nearing completion; and in the recently launched project “Restoration of bog ecosystems in specially protected nature territories”, work has only just begun.
The public values the opportunities for recreation – the forest is a place for walking, active leisure, mushroom and berry picking and other activities. Across almost 5% of its territory the company carries out forest tending that supports these recreational opportunities, and it has also created more than 300 free recreation sites for Latvia's residents and visitors, balancing economic, social and environmental interests.