Land use - Outlook 2020 (Latvia)

SOER 2010 Common environmental theme (Deprecated)

Topics: Land use Soil Resource efficiency and waste

This page was archived on 21 Mar 2015 with reason: A new version has been published

SOER Common environmental theme from Latvia

Topic: Land

Published: 26 Nov 2010 Modified: 11 May 2020

A long-term scenario for land use in Latvia has been developed as part of the Land Policy Guidelines 2008–2014. The scenario is based on development trends and studies of land-use in Europe.

In the foreseeable future (2030), as demand for food increases in various regions of the world, so the demand for agricultural land will also grow. Latvia currently has legal restrictions on land transactions for non-citizens. Under the terms of the EU Accession Agreement, these restrictions will expire in 2013 (if the term is not extended). At this time, the amount of unused agricultural land will probably decrease, however, significant changes in land use are not envisaged.

Forestry management will be based on balanced use of resources and environmental sustainability. There will be insignificant increases in forest areas and protected natural areas will constitute around 19.5 % of the country.

The maintenance of typical ecosystems and sustainability in land use will be ensured by retaining existing land-use proportions.

Proportion of each type of land use (% of total territory)

Land use, 2007	Land use, 2030
Agricultural land — 38 % Unused agricultural land, % of total agricultural land — 14.6 % Forest land — 55 % Building areas — 4.1 % Other land (scrub, wetlands, land under water) —13.1 %	Agricultural land — 35 % Unused agricultural land, % of total agricultural land — 1 % Forest land — 56 % Building areas — 7 % Other land (scrub, wetlands, land under water) — 12 %