In October, the Ministry of Agriculture submitted for public consultation amendments to two regulations - "Regulations on felling trees in forests" and "Regulations on forest inventory and information circulation in the Forest State Register". These amendments were formally promoted to reduce the administrative burden, but in fact, they achieve quite different "objectives", nature guards say.
In the summer of 2022, the first government of Krišjānis Kariņš (New Unity) supported changes to the rules on felling trees proposed by the Ministry of Agriculture, essentially allowing younger forests to be felled. In April 2024, the Constitutional Court declared these rules unconstitutional and canceled them.
Not only would the amendments effectively legalize the reduced cutting measurements successfully challenged by conservation organizations before the Constitutional Court, but they also include other measures that would increase the intensity of logging, with negative impacts on the forest environment. At the same time, according to the annotation to the amendments, the Ministry of Agriculture has not only not assessed the environmental impact of the amendments, but does not even consider that there could be such an impact.
"The Ministry of Agriculture is once again trying to hide important amendments in technical details so that the public does not notice that it is once again trying to expand clearcutting.
"How many will suspect that more intensive deforestation is hidden under the formula for the composition of a stand, how much variation is allowed in diameter measurements, or what the criteria are for declaring a stand unproductive?" asks Viesturs Ķerus, Chairman of the Board of the Latvian Ornithological Society.
Amendments to the rules on felling trees in forests provide for an increase in the maximum clearcutting area from two to five hectares in large parts of Latvian forests.
The amendments to the rules also provide for a 20% tolerance for average diameter measurements, which makes the reduced clear-cutting diameters successfully challenged by nature conservation organizations before the Constitutional Court an "acceptable deviation".
"It is unacceptable that once again the Ministry of Agriculture is pushing through major changes to laws with potentially significant environmental impacts without adequate assessment and without sufficient discussion with stakeholders. At the same time, the sectoral policy planning document - the Guidelines for the Development of Forest and Related Industries - which should reflect these changes and which should be subject to an environmental impact assessment, has not been prepared for the fourth year! What good management practice are we talking about?" says Valters Kinna, an expert from the Green Freedom Association.
Back in April, the Constitutional Court, when ruling on amendments to the tree felling regulations, stated that "decisions must be in line with the principle of sustainability - comprehensively assessed, balancing public welfare, environmental and economic interests and justifying the chosen development solution".
Although the Ministry of Agriculture undertook to respect the Constitutional Court's decision, in reality, it has done the opposite, according to conservation organizations.
The organizations call on Prime Minister Evika Siliņa to ensure that the rule of law is respected in the government she leads.
