News

LVM Continues Logging Works on the Latvian-Belarusian Border

JSC “Latvia's State Forests” (LVM) continues to remove timber in a total length of more than 30 kilometres on the Latvian-Belarusian border to ensure fast and efficient construction of the infrastructure necessary for the protection of the external land border of the country.

Dangerous trees and felling residues are removed, the delivery of wood products to customers is started. To provide high-quality information to those performing the State border construction works, information is collected on the stages where the access roads have been strengthened with wood products; the roads that can be used to ensure the border construction works have been identified. The information will be prepared and handed over to JSC “Valsts nekustamie īpašumi” (State Real Estate).

“During the construction of the border, we face a number of challenges, which hinder the deadlines of the planned works.  For example, attracting professional arborists to cut the largest trees near the temporary fence of the border and harvesting dangerous trees without the involvement of large machinery, which does not guarantee the correct direction of felling. We also face the risk of damaging infrastructure and equipment such as information signs, canopies, pedestrian bridges and other elements located in the border zone where the planned logging works are to be performed,” says Māris Guļāns, Logging Manager at LVM South Latgale region.

To ensure a fast and efficient construction process of the infrastructure necessary for the protection of the external land border of the country, the Parliament passed the Law on the Construction of the External Land Border Infrastructure in its final reading on 12 November last year. Considering the changes in the international security environment and the fact that the number of cases of illegal crossing of the Latvian-Belarusian border has increased rapidly, the construction of the infrastructure necessary for the protection of the external border must be ensured as soon as possible.

JSC “Latvia's State Forests” is a responsible member of the Latvian society, which implements this responsibility in numerous areas in accordance with the interests of the society.