2016

16 thousand hectars of state forests have been restored last year

Every year, in order to ensure sustainable forest management, JSC "Latvia's State Forests" (LVM) carries out reforestation and tending works. In 2015, LVM restored 16 thousand hectares of forest by planting 23 million high-quality forest seedlings. In turn, young stands have been tended in the area of almost 41 thousand hectares, and agro-technical care was carried out in nearly 25 thousand hectares.

In order to promote public awareness of what and why is being done in the forest, stressing the importance of sustainable forest management, LVM organises the annual Forest Days. 245  educational events were organised last year, involving more than eight thousand participants; the majority of them were school students, who not only cleaned up the forests and neighbourhood, set up and tidied nest boxes, but also mastered the forest planting skills.

Forest Days' events are not only an opportunity for spending time in nature, but also a chance to learn, to explore and to notice things around us. Forest Days are still open for applications. They will take place from April till the end of May, and all forest friends are kindly invited to take a walk in the forest together with LVM experts to discover the importance of forest management and see how the Latvian forest is growing. They are also kindly invited to take part in the forest clean-up works.

Since people in Latvia enjoy spending their spare time in nature, LVM does it best to offer different recreational opportunities in the forest. Last year the company took care of 363 important sites in different places of Latvia: sightseeing facilities, recreation areas, trails, observation towers and parks, offering various recreation opportunities to Latvian residents and guests free of charge.

LVM has also created an interactive forest management cycle that uses pictures, videos and an educational story to tell everyone interested about what, how, when and why is going on in the areas managed by JSC "Latvia's State Forests".