(...) What comes next – we have prepared a draft Cabinet of Ministers report, which has currently been submitted to VARAM and the project monitoring group. Essentially, it is an overview of how much, what and where has been counted in nature, and what state it is in. In parallel, a socio-economic assessment is being carried out for the planned recommendations (namely, how much each of the possible variants or action plans might cost, what we gain, and what we lose). This is being done so that decision-makers, or the Cabinet of Ministers, have the opportunity to base their decisions on very specific data and calculations. One must take into account that there are costs involved in each of the options. It should be added here that, upon joining the European Union, we undertook commitments, including in nature conservation, and if we do not fulfil them to some degree, then we either pay a fine or we address the specific problem and continue to do better. However, the goal is to balance biodiversity with economic development and human interests. The magic triangle on which everything rests, and it would not be advisable to end up in one ditch or the other at some point.
Illustration by Gatis Šļūka used