Latvian Bioeconomy Strategy 2030

The Latvian Bioeconomy Strategy 2030 is a national cross-sectoral strategy. Its main objective is promotion and preservation of employment in bioeconomy sectors to up to 128 thousand employees; increasing the added value of bioeconomy products to at least 3.8 billion EUR in 2030; and increasing the value of bioeconomy export production to at least 9 billion EUR in 2030.
The Strategy aims to make agriculture, forestry and fisheries more productive and sustainable. To this end, it is planning to ensure that innovative approaches for efficient and sustainable use of natural resources are being developed and introduced in bioeconomy sectors of Latvia in order to develop national economy by providing high added value, promoting export and employment, as well as concurrently balancing economic interests with ensuring of environmental quality and preservation and increase of biological diversity. The document also aims to use biomass for energy generation, using the principle of cascading as much as possible; to introduce certification of the wood and supply-production chain in accordance with internationally recognised standards; to support the cultural or intangible services of ecosystems as the development of public goods; and to introduce the principles of rational use of bioresources in the habits of inhabitants.
Further, for reducing rural poverty, the document is targeting the aid to agriculture and rural development to achieve a higher added value and employment.
To enable more inclusive and efficient agricultural and food systems, the Strategy seeks to ensure that employment in the traditional sectors of bioeconomy in 2030 would remain at the level of 2015, i.e., 128 thousand people; to increase the value of exported goods from 4.26 billion EUR in 2016 to at least 9 billion EUR in 2030; to create an investment-friendly environment in bioeconomy; to reduce the prices of energy resources; to extend the possibilities of selling the produce for small producers in the agro-food sector; to address the problems of unfair competition in the field of bioeconomy; to replace non-renewable resources with sustainable bioresources in public procurements; to encourage local governments to promote the development of private entrepreneurship within their territory and to facilitate the emergence of new undertakings and business ideas in the State at large; to support the spatial development planning, including economically profitable (viable) use of land and natural resources; to promote research excellence and efficient knowledge transfer within traditional bioeconomy sectors; to provide excellent education services for the needs of bioeconomy sectors; to use new research opportunities upon addressing social, environmental, climate change, and economic problems; to promote and attract investments; to increase the efficiency and work productivity in all sectors of bioeconomy; to develop a long-term policy for the use of land; to include bioeconomy in the brand of Latvia; to support measures for the promotion of export; and to raise popularity of bioeconomy and involvement of the society.
In order to increase the resilience of livelihoods to disasters, the Strategy aims to specify the minimum necessary number of growing trees in forest regeneration and afforestation depending on the dominating species of trees; to specify the average value of the final felling diameter based on the numerical value of the dominating species of trees; to reduce GHG emissions in bioeconomy sectors; and to support climate change mitigation, evaluation of climate change risks, and adaptation to climate changes.