The Ministry of Smart Administration and Regional Development (VARAM) is advancing amendments to the law “On Compensation for Restrictions on Economic Activity in Protected Areas” (the Compensation Law), broadening its scope with a new form of compensation – land exchange.
The planned amendments provide that landowners whose property lies in a strict protection zone or in another area with substantial restrictions on economic activity — for example, a micro-reserve, a nature reserve, a nature restricted area or another protected area (including a nature reserve zone, a strict regime zone, a regulated regime zone or a nature restricted area zone) — and where the plot of land is undeveloped, will be able to exchange their land for an equivalent plot of state-owned land.
VARAM Minister Raimonds Čudars: “Introducing land exchange is one more way of ensuring a balance between nature conservation objectives and people’s property rights. This instrument will give owners a wider choice of which compensation to use. On the state’s side, the volume of annual payments will fall and, at the same time, it will be possible to consolidate state-owned property in protected areas. The regional principle is important – land is intended to be exchanged primarily within the boundaries of the same municipality or a neighbouring one. This approach will help preserve owners’ ties to their particular region.”
Specially protected nature territories (ĪADT) in Latvia cover 1.19 million ha, or 18.4% of the land area, including both public and private land. These territories have differing protection and management regimes – from minimal restrictions in protected landscape areas to a complete ban on economic activity in nature reserves.
The most significant restrictions affect forestry activity in particular, which often prevents an owner from obtaining the economic benefit they had planned from their property. At present, 73,895 ha of forest land in private ownership fall within ĪADT and are subject to various restrictions on forestry activity. Compensation for these restrictions can currently be received mainly in the form of annual support payments, largely from European Union funds, or by making use of the land buy-back option in nature reserves and regulated regime zones.
The draft law is currently undergoing inter-ministerial coordination, and the public has already had the opportunity to give its views in a public consultation, which ran from 27 August to 10 September 2025.