In the film “Pie bagātās kundzes”, Mrs Kalnkāja, brilliantly portrayed by Zigrīda Stungure, sensing her power, chose herself a maid... (One of the job seekers, played by Velta Līne, did threaten the Lady with her suitcase if she continued to mock people. But...) Much like Mrs Kalnkāja in her selection of a maid, there are searchers wandering through Latvia's forests and fields, thinking: what else could be found on property that doesn't belong to them, and how could they introduce the owner to the system's lack of professionalism.
What else to ban – that is the question! What to restrict? What else (how much timber) could be left to rot? What else could be left unmanaged and turned into a thicket or scrubland?
Some 15 years ago, in an interview on Latvian TV, the then Auditor General Ingūna Sudraba remarked that Latvian laws (or rather, the authors of these laws) allow for the wasteful and inefficient spending of state funds. In 2019, it is modern and sophisticated to talk about climate change and strive to invest as much as possible in “braking” these changes. Never mind tiny China and little India! What are tiny Russia and mere Congo or Madagascar? We! We will be miles ahead of the carriage of change! We!
From an interview with Vita Matīsa on the Latvian Radio 1 programme "Krustpunktā" on 3 June 2019
“…
...he (President Donald Trump) has planted such a perception in America that didn't exist in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. That - lying - it's OK. To lie - that's no problem at all! If it helps you get ahead in life, then lying... That's all fine! And now, among the American people, a perception has formed – ”well, if the president can do it like this, why can't I"?
...”
The Constitution speaks of justice. A forest owner wants to look after their forest. A 'Mrs Kalnkāja' at a state institution tells them: “Forbidden! If you manage it, you'll be a thief! Let it crumble and rot, it's for your own good! You are the true guardian! Don't do anything, just guard it!”
Mrs Kalnkāja, of course, while calling on witnesses, throws a few pennies at the forest owner... Not enough? “There is only so much money!”
At the same time...
"Nature conservationists, who fight against almost every tree being cut down, have planned to fell more than 300 hectares of forest in a nature reserve — a national park — this year and next. It is paradoxical that intervention in natural processes is planned in order to supposedly preserve the natural environment.
The Nature Conservation Agency has announced plans to fell 236 hectares of trees in the Zaļais purvs territory of Ķemeri National Park this year. In total, 333 hectares are planned to be felled, with work to be completed next year. This is being done to promote faster restoration of the bog. However, it is unclear why such serious intervention in natural processes is necessary to supposedly preserve the natural environment.
The Zaļais purvs territory is located in Smārde Parish, Engure Municipality, and peat was extracted here in the middle of the last century. The western part of the bog was drained by installing a system of drainage and collection ditches, and by digging and deepening the Smirdgrāvis (Sulphur ditch), which carried the bog's water into the Slocene. In the 1960s, peat extraction and, with it, the pumping of water, were stopped because it began to threaten the formation of hydrogen sulphide mineral waters. However, drainage systems have continued to affect the bog's water regime to this day. The bog slowly began to become overgrown with forest, and characteristic bog species disappeared from it. Income from the logging of the bog will be invested in the further restoration of degraded wetlands, as well as in the development of new tourism infrastructure in Ķemeri National Park.
The work is being carried out as part of the LIFE+ project "Restoration of the Hydrological Regime of Ķemeri National Park". The project is financed by the European Commission and the Administration of the Latvian Environmental Protection Fund."
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