Strategy for Sustainable Development of Latvia

The Strategy for Sustainable Development is a national multi-sectoral strategy of Latvia. Its main objective is to define the directions of the country’s sustainable development.
The Strategy aims to make agriculture, forestry and fisheries more productive and sustainable. To this end, it is planning to introduce environment friendly methods of agriculture; to promote a sustainable and rational utilisation of water resources; to protect water ecosystems and terrestrial ecosystems directly dependent upon the water, and wetlands, to improve the condition thereof; to ensure a good quality (condition) of all underground and surface waters, to prevent any further pollution and to decrease gradually the existing pollution; to minimise the pollution with substances hazardous to the water environment; to ensure the renewal of underground water resources; to ensure the protection of marine waters, paying particular attention to the reduction of chemical contamination in the Baltic Sea and on the fulfilment of the international commitments of Latvia; to prevent deforestation; to ensure the preservation and increasing of productivity and values of woodlands; to promote the forestation of non-agricultural farmland; to ensure the preservation and renewal of fish resources, having, at same time, ensured the employment in the fields of fisheries and fish processing; to promote such utilisation of hunting resources to ensure the protection and preservation of populations, gene pool and its community protection and conservation; to conserve and to restore ecosystems and the diversity of their natural composition; to conserve and to foster the diversity of local wildlife species; to conserve the genetic diversity of wildlife species as well as that of cultivated plants and domestic animal breeds; to facilitate the preservation of traditional landscape structure; to ensure a balanced and sustainable utilisation of wildlife resources; and to limit the generation of waste by reason of economic growth, and to ensure a considerable reduction of the total amount of waste generated by means of the best waste prevention possibilities.
Further, for reducing rural poverty, the document targets to reduce the number of individuals in absolute poverty and to improve the living standard of such persons; to prevent causes of poverty by means of coherent, coordinated and purposeful action involving all sectors and administrative levels; to encourage the planning and implementation of successful and coordinated poverty prevention measures; to encourage the employment and occupational skills development of those in poverty and low budgets; to support the measures aimed at fostering the competitiveness of companies based in less developed regions; to encourage the development of untraditional farming and alternative occupations in rural areas; to take measures aimed at mitigating social impacts caused by the decrease in the number of persons employed in agriculture; to decrease social and economic differences and risk; to promote diversification of employment in rural areas; to create purposeful support policy for the national planning of regions (and separate parts of the country); and to diversify rural economy and increase of the living standard of people in the rural territories making it close to cities.
To enable more inclusive and efficient agricultural and food systems, the Strategy seeks to ensure effective management of agricultural land; to ensure conservation of genetic resources of cultivated plants and animals used in agriculture; to ensure conservation of biological variety of wild plants and animals, characteristic for agricultural lands; to promote conservation of traditional rural landscape; to establish rational structure of households; to optimise production of agriculture; to promote specialization and concentration of households; to create favourable business environment; to facilitate the development of agricultural production market; to promote availability of credit resources; and to promote protection of the domestic market.
In order to increase the resilience of livelihoods to disasters, the Strategy aims to ensure anti-flood protection; and to ensure the contribution of Latvia in the prevention of global climate changes in such a manner that does not hinder the economic development of the country.
In addition, the Strategy aims to promote the development of energy industry in accordance with balanced and sustainable economic development; to decrease the environmental pollution from energy facilities, especially emissions of air pollutant substances; to increase the use of renewable (local) energy resources; to increase the safety of energy supply; and to ensure the technical and organisation readiness of Latvia’s energy supply system for synchronous operation with the systems of the Nordic countries and those of Central Europe.
In the field of minerals, the Strategy envisions to promote the rational and prudent use of mineral deposits.
The Sustainable Development Council shall coordinate the implementation of the Strategy and introduction thereof in sectoral policy documents and legislation. The Latvian Environment Agency shall, on a yearly basis, prepare the National Report of the Indicators of Sustainable Development, as well as provide the necessary information for international reports of indicators.