In cooperation with the Ziedot.lv foundation and responsible nature travellers, SIA “Rīgas meži” will, for the first time, implement the social responsibility donation campaign launched in the spring: “Erase your CO₂ footprint!” and plant new forest stands.
The tree planting will take place on Thursday, 5 October, at 11:00 am, in the Tīreļi forestry district of “Rīgas meži”, in the Skujenieki forest, Dzelzkalni range, Ķekava parish (https://ej.uz/nxyr). The event will be attended by Ziedot.lv manager Rūta Dimante, “Rīgas meži” board chair Anita Skudra, and responsible traveller Aldis Kušķis.
Media representatives are invited to attend the event. Please note that photography and/or filming are planned during the event for publicity purposes.
Since April, everyone, especially travellers using air transport, has been invited to pay attention to the impact of flights on the environment and the climate, to offset the “CO₂ footprint” caused by their flights, and to donate funds for planting new trees in areas where there has been no forest for at least the last 20 years, or in degraded territories. This project was developed through the cooperation of SIA “Rīgas meži”, the Ziedot.lv foundation, and the “Rīgas meži” foundation, with the aim of giving everyone the opportunity to contribute at least a small part to climate-important work by planting trees.
Currently, the project has been supported by more than 100 donors, who have collectively contributed over 3,000 euros for this responsible action. With these funds, 1,080 high-quality birch (‘Betula’) and 1,400 black alder (‘Alnus glutinosa’) seedlings, grown at the “Rīgas meži” “Norupe” nursery, will be planted on 1.24 hectares of land. After 50 years, this forest stand will have offset 112 tonnes of CO₂ emissions.
“With this project, we are confirming that Latvian society is ready to care for the environment and for the future of our land and our descendants,” says Ziedot.lv manager Rūta Dimanta. “Responsible travel is one of the ways we can care for the environment here and now. Erasing the CO₂ emissions caused by your journey is a duty in the name of our future. Sincere thanks to the first 110 donors who have joined the initiative, and we invite every other traveller who chooses to move by air transport to donate towards erasing their CO₂ footprint!”
“Reduce, measure, offset – these are my calls to travellers,” says the author of this initiative, Aldis Kušķis. “You can reduce your CO2 footprint, for example, by travelling less frequently but for longer periods. Or by using a ferry or train instead of a regional flight. I encourage people to travel responsibly! That is why the Ziedot.lv project was created, which gives every traveller the opportunity to simply and clearly offset the CO₂ footprint they have created. While there has been plenty of talk about this before, now there is a chance for everyone to take action!”
Therefore, “Rīgas meži”, Ziedot.lv and socially responsible travellers encourage those heading off to see other countries to do so responsibly and allocate funds to offset the “CO₂ footprint” caused by air travel! This can be done very simply on the Ziedot.lv website: https://ej.uz/h2ov!
The authors of the “Erase your CO₂ footprint!” initiative are grateful to everyone, especially air travellers, who have demonstrated their social responsibility towards the future and their successors by donating funds for the creation of new forest stands!
Explanation of CO₂ emissions
CO₂ is one of the greenhouse gases produced, for example, by burning carbon-containing fuels (coal, oil, or natural gas), including in aviation.
The volume of CO₂ generated as a result of human activity exceeds our planet's absorption capacity, causing a greenhouse effect and contributing to negative climate change. This is increasingly and visibly affecting every one of us, including in the form of unstable and sometimes destructive weather conditions (storms, prolonged droughts, tropical downpours, or warmer winters and hotter summers).
As a result of such weather conditions, for example, various pests are multiplying rapidly and their behaviour is becoming atypical. For several years now, the European spruce bark beetle (Ips typographus) has been multiplying in large volumes in Central Europe and also in Latvian spruce forests, which poses a great threat to the future of the spruce, which has grown in Latvia for many millennia, and to the forest ecosystem as a whole, and consequently to the national economy.
“Rīgas meži” board member Jānis Ģērmanis says: “The world is currently working actively to reduce the “CO₂ footprint” so that the environment becomes cleaner and the impact of human activities on nature is smaller. It is not just scientists who are occupied with this. Every year, more and more socially responsible companies set themselves the goal of becoming climate-neutral, and also actively look for opportunities to both reduce the negative impact of their operations on the environment and to offset the portion of the impact that cannot be avoided. Under these conditions, everyone must re-evaluate their daily habits and the consequences they create.”
J. Ģērmanis explains that it is important to support measures that both reduce and offset the negative impact of society on the environment. One of the ways to offset a “CO₂ footprint” is to plant trees. However, to avoid greenwashing, it will not suffice to plant trees in clear-felled areas or places where they have grown in the last 20 years. Therefore, new forest stands must be created where they have not been before, degraded areas must be restored, or forest territories destroyed by natural disasters must be replanted.
The planting of each tree during this and future projects will contribute to the implementation of the European Union's (EU) commitment to plant three billion trees within EU territory by 2030.