The Latvian Greens reject any possibility of supporting the Ministry of Agriculture’s proposal to further increase logging in state forests, stressing that this is contrary to the Constitutional Court’s decision, public opinion, and Latvia’s obligations to preserve natural values and combat climate change. The Progressives believe that these forests indirectly belong to the entire Latvian society and that public opinion must be taken into account in their management.
At the September 2 Cabinet meeting on the issue of possible increases in the income of capital companies, the State Chancellery has included in the draft protocol decision the task of evaluating the government decision adopted only this year on the maximum permissible volume of tree felling for the next 5 years, as well as the regulation of forest policy. It is known that the Ministry of Agriculture has previously proposed in its regulations to significantly increase the maximum size of clearcuts, allow the felling of younger trees and other changes that would further deplete the landscape of Latvian forests.
The Progressives do not support giving such a task, indicating that it contradicts the decision of the Constitutional Court, which has already found similar plans to cut down younger forests to be incompatible with the Constitution. The Ministry of Agriculture already has a clear task to prepare Forest Policy Guidelines, the preparation of which must appropriately assess the impact on the environment.
The government only decided in January this year on the maximum amount of felling in state forests, and moreover, the Ministry of Agriculture still has not fulfilled the task assigned therein to assess the impact of the felling amount on the achievement of climate goals. In recent years, forests have become a source of emissions due to intensive felling, violating Latvia’s climate commitments. Further delay in this area threatens with hundreds of millions of EUR in fines for violations of EU obligations.
The Progressives believe that before any return to the issue of felling amounts, the Ministry of Agriculture must fulfill its existing tasks, clearly demonstrating the impact of existing decisions on Latvia’s forests.
“The Progressives will not support an increase in logging in Latvian state forests, in order not to violate their pre-election promises, respect the opinion of the majority of society and not irreversibly destroy the landscape of Latvian forests,” emphasizes Edmunds Cepurītis.
He adds: “By choosing to further increase logging in publicly owned forests, the government would be acting wastefully with public property, while at the same time creating a great risk of hundreds of millions in fines. Therefore, the Progressives will not support it, and will call for other ways to redirect funds to government priorities – for example, reducing the massive construction of forest roads at public expense.”
Polls show that the majority of society would like to see less clear-cutting in state forests, not more. This opinion is well-founded in the data – for the first time in a long period of time, the wood stock in Latvian forests is decreasing due to excessive logging. Also, for the first time, forests have turned from a carbon sink into a source of emissions.
Progressives see other ways in which state-owned forest management can increase its contribution to society. A clear goal should be set for the use of Latvian-harvested timber in Latvian manufacturing plants, reducing the huge export of raw timber. This goal does not depend on a continuous increase in deforestation, but on carefully assigning tasks to JSC “Latvijas valsts meži”, including the restoration of the FSC certificate, which is important for the production of furniture and other products.
