Peat and climate. Peat extraction is a robust sector of Latvia's (local) economy that has “lived” through the centuries. Historically, it is documented that the first peat extraction sites in our territory operated as far back as the time of Duke Jacob. Peat has always “saved” people during crises, for example, during the wars that affected our territory. If we remember what our forest areas were like after World War I...
In Soviet times, peat was one of the fundamental energy resources; it was not for nothing that many peat factories were built – Seda, Aizpute, Līvāni, Baloži, Strūžāni, Zilaiskalns… In the Soviet state, energy was a strategic industry that could be placed on the same shelf as the defence industry. That is one story about peat. During that same period, agriculture flourished in Latvia and neighbouring countries; the people living in the large Soviet cities needed to eat, and livestock farming had to be developed. As is well known, many farms were built where peat was widely used for bedding – low-decomposed light sphagnum peat, by the way, is sterile. The largest bedding peat production facility in Latvia operated in the Kaigu bog, which fully supplied the Dobele and Jelgava districts.
Upon regaining independence, other winds began to blow in the energy sector: yes, peat is available, but… it must be extracted, transported, it creates dust. …. We have gas available: cheap fuel, we are abandoning peat. Allies in the West continued to use peat, and even today, if we look at where else in Europe peat is used – the answer will be – in energy! So, for us, the situation in the energy sector changed 20 years ago.
Latvian peat is an ideal raw material for peat substrate, where vegetables, flowering plants, forest seedlings, etc., are grown. Ultimately, there was and is a demand for such products, and a reorientation took place in Latvia. So, I will repeat – 20 years ago, what is happening elsewhere in Europe only today happened in Latvia! We have outpaced Europe by 20 years. We were more far-sighted and contemporary! We are ahead of the Finns, the Irish, and the Swedes. We produce the extracted peat for healthy food and forest seedlings.
Recently, contradictions and manipulations can be seen and read in many places regarding what exactly peat is. In the European understanding, peat is a fossil, non-renewable resource: this does not correspond to the truth. Latvian scientists have concluded that peat is slowly regenerating; Latvia's balance in terms of peat is positive because its extraction takes place on only 4% of the total bog area. In untouched or minimally touched bogs, or where sphagnum moss grows, the peat formation process continues. For example, in the Teiči Nature Reserve, the peat layer increases by 4 mm per year. Why speak of peat as a fossil in this case? Why such a narrow-minded approach?