Bird group warns forestry plan prioritises timber over conservation

Latvia’s draft guidelines for the development of the forestry and related industries focus on increasing timber extraction rather than improving nature conservation in forests, the Latvian Ornithological Society’s board chair Viesturs Ķerus told Latvijas Radio, as reported by LSM.

Ķerus said the guidelines should address current problems in forests from a sustainability perspective, but instead risk worsening them by promoting more intensive forest management and subordinating other benefits provided by forests to timber extraction.

Some proposals are clear, he said, including allowing the felling of younger trees and creating larger clear-cut areas. Other measures are less specific, such as changing how felling volumes are determined in state forests, reviewing the ban on clear-cutting and creating an optimal age structure for forests.

It is unclear what those measures would involve, Ķerus said, but he believed they were also likely to be aimed at increasing timber extraction rather than sustainable management.

He also criticised the concept of a dynamic nature conservation system, saying it would effectively mean that no individual forest plot would have stable protection.

Ķerus said the guidelines risk moving Latvia away from an agreement reached in the late 1990s on sustainable forest management, which is defined in the Forest Law as a balance between economic interests, the preservation of biological diversity and social needs.

Public consultation on the guidelines will continue for less than another week. People can send their views on how forests should be managed to the Ministry of Agriculture.

The guidelines were drafted after Latvia’s Constitutional Court concluded that a regulation allowing the felling of trees below a specified diameter was unconstitutional and annulled the relevant rules.