LATVIA

Environmental Overview
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A wealth of wetlands and a need for better handling of waste

Latvia enjoys unique habitats – including a wealth of wetlands that make the country the breeding ground for 10 percent of the world's black stork population and home to many other species. But if the country is to preserve its precious resources, it must work to improve solid waste and water treatment facilities while checking growing problems with air pollution.

Latvia's climate and natural formations are strongly impacted by the Baltic Sea. The country has a beautiful sandy coastline on the sea, over 500 kilometres long, and a humid climate influenced by maritime currents – though sharp changes in weather conditions are quite common in Latvia. The country's relief is quite low: The highest elevation, Gaizins hill, is only 312 metres above sea level.

Latvia boasts an abundance of natural areas, with forests covering more than 40 percent of the total territory and wetland areas, such as bogs and marshes, covering about 12 percent of the country. The country has a fairly high density of water bodies, all forming a part of the Baltic Sea watershed. The number of lakes exceeds 3,000, the main rivers are: Daugava, Lielupe, Venta, Gauja, which are transboundary watercourses.

There has been a steady decline in agricultural activities and land use over the last 40 years, and 1 million hectares of agricultural land have been converted to forest lands. As a result, arable land is decreasing annually.

Latvia is the second largest Baltic State after Lithuania in terms of population, with 2.48 million inhabitants. About 69 percent of the population lives in urban areas and 35.3 percent lives in the agglomeration around Riga, the capital.

Key challenges for Latvia include improvement of solid waste disposal and municipal wastewater treatment, containment of the growing air-pollution problem generated by increased traffic and maintaining the rare habitats that support the country's unique biodiversity.

The government has listed improvement of solid waste disposal as one of the national environmental priorities. Currently, there is no clear reporting system for waste production, but it is known that, in 1996, the country generated 2.6 million cubic metres (about 500,000 tonnes) of waste. There are limited opportunities for recycling common waste in Latvia, due to a lack of production and technologies.

Municipal waste water was the major source of phosphorus pollution in rivers, causing an estimated 44 percent of the country's total phosphorus pollution discharge.

Latvian water policy has clear priorities to address this problem and an investment strategy designed to reduce waste water pollution every year. Thus far, their is a plentiful supply of good water in this country, which enjoys a large surface water network. Although rivers and lakes are influenced by human activities, and some of them suffer high levels of eutrophication, water use in Latvia is among the lowest in Europe – only 1.7 percent of available resources. Eighty percent of rivers are described as good or fair in terms of quality, which means they have no significant pollution, moderate nutrient content, and a rich flora, fauna and fish community.

The air quality in Latvian towns and cities is generally better or similar to that of West European cities. The main pollution sources are increasing road traffic from private passenger cars, the poor quality of buses and trucks and the incineration of dirty fuels in small boiler houses.

Since 1990, air pollution from stationary sources – including sulfur oxides nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide and particulate matter – have decreased on average by one third. These pollutants account for almost 80 percent of reported emissions by licensed emitters, but emission inventory done on the national level does not include the household sector.

Latvia's rich biological diversity is mainly due to the wide range of habitats and the vast number of territories not spoiled by human activities. About 18,000 animal species are officially recorded, including 320 bird species. Latvia' s breeding pairs of black stork constitutes 10 percent of the world's population of this species. Latvia also has a comparatively large wolf population.

There are many protected territories in Latvia, covering about 6.8 percent of the country's total area: There are two national parks and numerous nature preserves and sanctuaries.

Latvia is developing a body of legislation to address environmental concerns. The development of environmental policies and legislation is likely to continue, because Latvia is seeking European Union membership and working to comply with the EU's environmental standards. The basis of environmental legislation in Latvia is the Law on Environmental Protection (1991) now supported by numerous other acts in different areas. Modern legal instruments have been developed with the help of the Environmental Impact Assessment Law and Natural Resource tax law.

With the prominent place of environmental activism in recent history, public awareness of environmental issues is relatively high. Environmental education is one of the most popular topics for NGO activities. Currently there are over 130 registered groups in Latvia who are dealing with environmental issues.