The purpose of the activities of Joint Stock Company “Latvia’s State Forests” (LVM) is administration of state-owned forest property and management of public forest, ensuring preservation and increase of its value and generation of revenue for its owner – the State.

The highest executive body of LVM is the Board. As at 31 December 2014, the LVM Management Board consisted of 4 members: the Chairman of Board and 3 Members of Board.

LVM manages and administers 1.63 million ha of land, including 1.60 million ha of forest land, which incorporates 1.41 million ha of forest. The territories under the governance of LVM, in respect of which the main management goal is production of high quality timber, comprise 1.17 million ha of forest.

Uģis Rotbergs, WWF Latvia manager: “Foundation of the LVM has created preconditions for forestry in the state-owned forests of Latvia to base its activities on the principles of entrepreneurship, that is, to invest resources in the company and gain economic benefit in the future. The separation of the supervisory and economic management functions has allowed to diminish both conflicts of interests and impact of corruption in the forestry sector. Certainly, great tasks are still to be undertaken in the future. It can be said that the LVM took over the forests when their value was equal to zero and it was done without evaluation. Therefore the scale of values determining what a good forest management is and, in a broader sense, what the value of forests is, should be instilled in the social awareness. Society has to be aware of the benefits it receives from its forest property both in the state and private sector and realise that investing in forests as much as possible will increase the value of forests and ensure circulation of products and services at a higher quality in the future.”