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JSC “Latvia’s State Forests” managing Latvia’s forests for already 25 years

25 years ago, on the 28th of October 1999, JSC “Latvia’s State Forests” (LVM) was founded. Over the years, the company has evolved from a medium Latvian enterprise with a 24 million euro turnover to one of the largest Latvian companies with a turnover of more than half a billion euros. A healthy and nurtured forest also brings significant benefits regarding CO2 emission and climate change reduction in Latvia.

Thanks to LVM’s operational activity, which simultaneously balances the interests of the economy, environment, and recreation, the company has also ensured stable and increasingly significant payments into the state budget in the form of taxes and dividends. Since its foundation, LVM has paid the state of Latvia 2 billion euros.

Wood inventory in Latvia’s state forests is gradually increasing, and at the moment it reaches 325 million cubic meters. Wood that is used for building construction also increases the total CO2 attraction, consequently reducing the effect of climate change. With the forest expanding yearly, the wood inventory also increases by 11.3 million cubic meters. The wood inventory in LVM’s managed forests more than 10 times exceeds the annual felling volume.

“” Latvia’s State Forests” with its work confidently confirm that it is the greenest and most efficient Latvian company. If back in the day, in 1999, when the company was just founded, many ideas and knowledge were borrowed from others, for instance, the Swedes or Finns, now, 25 years later, we are equivalent partners. In many fields, others learn from us. The LVM team aims to continue to work to strengthen Latvia’s economy, develop Latvia’s regions, and offer vast opportunities for relaxation and forest landscape enjoyment to every Latvia’s inhabitant,” LVM’s head of the board Pēters Putniņš explains.

Ever since the company’s foundation, more than 330 thousand hectares of Latvia’s state forests have been restored. In addition, the company has constructed forest roads with a total length of 8.9 thousand kilometers and restored forest melioration systems with a total length of 318 thousand hectares. Taking into account the teenagers' and young adults’ practical interest in nature, more than 176 students and teachers have participated in annual forest environment education programs.

Forestry is LVM’s main operational direction, but the company also develops other business directions - hunting and recreational services, extracting selected seeds and seedlings for forest restoration, managing mineral resources in 120 quarries, and developing geospatial data services.

“Currently, LVM is not only one of the best successfully managed companies in Latvia but also one of the most efficient forest managers in Europe. LVM has reached notable results not only in forestry but also in other land management and related business directions,” P. Putniņš adds.

In order to provide high-quality and high-fertility future forest seedlings, LVM owns 10 forest nurseries in a total area of 434 hectares. Over the past 25 years, LVM has grown 992 million forest seedlings. That is more than 460 seedlings for every Latvia’s inhabitant!

LVM’s developed geospatial information technology platform LV GEO is one of the most versatile and important geospatial solutions in the country. It is successfully used in many industries, managing more than 2 million hectares of land. This year, LVM GEO has successfully launched its services outside the Latvian borders - the platform is used also by Sweden’s real estate management companies and forest management businesses in Estonia and Lithuania.

Nowadays sustainable forest management is not imaginable without the newest technologies; thus, LVM increasingly uses drones. Currently, LVM uses more than 172 drones in 8 different structural units.

Over the past 25 years, the company has significantly increased the area managed with the main aim of environmental protection - in 2001 it was only 5%, while in 2024, it is more than 25%. LVM’s environmental experts perform annual monitoring on the land plots where future operations are planned, for example, forest construction or mineral resources extraction. In those monitoring sessions, the specialists continue to find new protected species and biotopes of the European Union importance. At the same time, LVM monitors large nesting bird species (golden eagle, lesser spotted eagle, black stork, etc.), capercaillie, and several protected plant, lichen, and mushroom species. Monitoring of lesser spotted eagles, golden eagles, and ospreys provides representative data for the entire territory of Latvia.

Alongside annual biotope and species habitat management works, since 2021, the company actively participates in environmental projects supported by external financing. At the end of 2023, the company successfully completed its participation in one of them, restoring biotopes and rare species habitats of EU importance in 14 protected nature territories in a total area of almost 800 hectares. In 2024, over the course of the “LIFE-IP LatViaNature” project, the company continued water quality improvement works in the Aģe River catchment area, using green and blue infrastructure elements. The company also continues the “LIFE-IP LatViaNature” project, during which the quality of forest habitats of EU importance dependent on natural disturbances is improved and the best methods for the future management of these habitats are found.

The society appreciates opportunities for recreation - the forest is a desired place for walks, active leisure, mushroom and berry picking, and other activities. In 5% of the managed territory, the company performs such forest management to ensure recreational opportunities for Latvia’s inhabitants and guests. There are more than 300 free-of-charge recreational spots, successfully balancing the economic, social, and environmental interests.