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Deforestation Works Take Place in the Territory of the State Forests for the Needs of the Rail Baltica Project

JSC “Latvia's State Forests” (LVM) participates in the implementation of the Rail Baltica project – the planned railway line and its infrastructure facilities cross the territories of Latvia’s State Forests, and the Ministry of Transport can transfer the right to cut down trees in all forests to LVM. This autumn, the first application was received from SIA “Eiropas dzelzceļa līnijas” for felling trees in the territories managed by LVM in an area of approximately 10 ha. Deforestation was carried out in accordance with the requirements and by the deadlines required by SIA “Eiropas dzelzceļa līnijas”.

“The biggest challenge in the organization of deforestation works was that the distribution of land units is taking place in parallel to create the land units needed for the railway infrastructure, which will be handed over to the Ministry of Transport. As a result, the cadastral data of both the State Forest Service and the State Land Service changed. The deforestation works of the first application have been completed and the first outline of the Rail Baltica project is already visible in the vicinity of Iecava; here, the first construction works of the main line will be started in the first quarter of next year,” says Ilona Jēkabsone, specialist of the Rail Baltica project at LVM Real Estate Management.

The total length of the Rail Baltica railway line in the territory of Latvia is planned to be 265 km – from Estonia to the Lithuanian border. About 70 km cross the territories currently managed by LVM.

Photo: Rail Baltica railway main track scheme in the territory of Latvia with territories managed by LVM.

Before entering the construction phase of the project, it is necessary to deforest the forest land and cut down trees outside the forest land. In accordance with the Forest Law, the Ministry of Transport can transfer the right to cut down trees during the construction process of railway infrastructure facilities and infrastructure related to railway construction to the State forest land manager, namely, LVM. It is expected that already next year the project promoters will actively start organizing tree felling in the State lands necessary for the implementation of the project. It is expected that the first requests for tree felling will be received in Zemgale, because at this stage the construction process is closest to the construction phase. Tree felling will be started after receiving a request from the project promoters for a specific stage.

The central coordinator of the development and construction of the project is JSC “RB Rail”, a joint venture of three ministries of the Baltic states – the Ministry of Climate of the Republic of Estonia, the Ministry of Transport of the Republic of Latvia and the Ministry of Transport and Communications of the Republic of Lithuania. In turn, the national implementer in Latvia is the State-owned capital company – “Eiropas dzelzceļa līnijas”.

The purpose of the Rail Baltica railway infrastructure project is to integrate the Baltic countries into the European railway network, with the assumption that the railway line will connect Helsinki, Tallinn, Pärnu, Riga, Panevezys, Kaunas, Vilnius and Warsaw. Five countries of the European Union participate in the project: Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and, albeit indirectly, Finland.