2017

Participants of LVM Bio-economy School are Heading for a Forest Expedition

This year, for the first time JSC "Latvia's State Forests" (LVM) encouraged secondary school students to take part in a new scholarship contest "LVM Bio-economy School", where they compete with their peers in erudition, as well as supplement their knowledge of the forest industry and related issues. The first and the second round of the competition have come to an end, and the most creative and active young people have been found. In the third and the last round of the contest, the participants will have to make a video message for the International Day of Forests, which is celebrated worldwide on 21 March.

In the first round of the contest named "Create!" participants had an opportunity for creative expression, making posters on the theme "Bio-economy". We received many works which were assessed by an experienced jury.

  Open gallery 

Authors of the best works were invited to participate in the second round of the competition "Explore Nature!" and go on an educational forest expedition together with industry experts. Kaspars Riže, LVM Senior Forest Expert, invited "LVM Bio-economy School" participants to go into the forest to explore sustainable forest management from different angles. "It is so nice to talk to young people who know much and want to learn more. During the expedition, participants had an opportunity to see how trees grow in different conditions. They could distinguish between the trees that grow in conditions where there is enough of light, and those growing in darker areas. For example, participants were surprised how tall the trees were in a nine-year old pine-tree stand. Such growing conditions also create successful pre-conditions for active photosynthesis:  light + water + CO2 = wood + O2," says Kaspars Riže after the "LVM Bio-economy School" expedition.

Amanda Kočāne, a tenth-grade student of Rugāji Secondary School: "It was really exciting to look at the forest from a forester's point of view. We gained a lot of new and useful information."

Kristaps Ceplis, Head of the society "Zaļās mājas", addressed young people in exhibition “Iepazīsties – koks!” (Please Meet Wood!) to tell them about wood and further use of its products.

"Wood and other biological products have a high potential for increasing added value of products, replacing fossil fuels in energy production, developing future biological products and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. We all can and should take part to make this world a better place," says Kristaps Ceplis.

For the third round of the contest "Speak!" participants have to make a one-minute-long video message to their peers in the International Day of Forests. Videos should be registered on the www.lvm.lv/bioekonomika website by 13 March. Authors of the best "LVM Bio-economy School" videos will receive a scholarship.

To raise public awareness of the growing role of forest resources in addressing environmental problems, LVM in cooperation with the association "Zaļās mājas" and the National Centre for Education in January 2017 invited secondary school students to take part in the scholarship contest "LVM Bio-economy School".