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Landscape degradation

There is a twofold connection between humans and their environment:

• through the circulation of energy and matter, using food, materials and energy as required;
• through emotions and thoughts, reflections of physical landscape elements in the conscious mind provide information and spiritual energy.

Human economic activity alters the natural circulation of matter and energy. There are practically no primeval, untouched natural landscapes in Latvia. Landscapes have developed in parallel with human social and economic systems. The characteristic mosaic of the Latvian landscape was historically formed. Traditional land uses and methods of agriculture, forestry and fishery have slowly elaborated and enriched landscape elements over the centuries. The Latvian landscape was the environment in which the nation’s spiritual and material culture and national consciousness were formed. Recognition of these historic roots is an important precondition for the planning of sustainable development and the elaboration of individual responsibility.

During the post-war period, when huge collective farms were formed in rural areas, and towns (especially the Riga agglomeration) grew rapidly, traditional landscape structures were destroyed. Industrialised society, with its characteristic standardisation, high concentration of technological processes in a limited space, and mass production and consumption, rapidly degraded the determining qualities of landscape, since it:

• reduced natural spatial diversity;
• changed natural flows of energy and matter;
• decreased the opportunities for informative and aesthetic experiences.

Landscape degradation in Latvia was most significantly influenced by changes in rural areas, where farmers were detached from their traditional, extended family, small farm style of living and concentrated into villages or at collective sites of production. People were alienated from the land and therefore from their historic roots.

Degradation of landscape elements and processes, together with pollution and mundane uniformity, compromises the individual’s ability to perceive and observe and creates stress. This, in turn affects society’s health and its ability to adapt to change.

Essentially, the basis for all these negative manifestations is poor economic management - poor planning and poor implementation - and this affects the level of responsibility and cultural development of all persons involved.

Effect oriented measures:

clean-up and regeneration:

Landscape degradation is most clearly observed in our polluted water basins, low quality land reclamation drainage networks, abandoned gravel-pits and territories abandoned by the Russian army.

• responsibility of land users and owners for the property under their management;
• involvement of local governments in the regeneration of landscapes, developing local regulations, allocating sites for waste disposal, organising waste collection (see `Environmental impact of waste`), providing a system of financial discounts and penalties;
• subsidies (including foreign grants) for the development and implementation of recultivation projects, especially in territories abandoned by the Russian army;
• inventory of degraded landscapes, setting priorities;
• inventory of protected territories of natural and historic value within urban environments, setting priorities;
• landscape planning;
• elaboration and implementation of remediation projects.

humanisation of the human environment:

• programmes for the humanisation of the human environment and the development of urban and municipal projects;
• elaboration of the concept of human settlements in accordance with policy directions set by the Rio de Janeiro Conference for Environment and Development regarding human settlements.

Cause-oriented measures:

balancing economic activity

• amendment and improvement of legislation regarding the economic rights and responsibilities of national and local governments, legal and physical persons;
• efficient control over land use;
• elaboration and implementation of development planning and territorial planning systems;
• ensuring territories have territorial plans as the basic instrument for regulation of their economic activity;
• ensuring public participation in territorial planning, drafting of development projects and EIA processes.

retention and optimisation of landscape structure

Retention of the mosaic pattern of the landscape is important for the preservation of human emotional perceptions, psychological well-being and the satisfaction of aesthetic needs, and for the maintenance of biodiversity in the territory (see `Reduction of biodiversity`). Only in a mosaic landscape may the spectrum of biotopes that provides habitats for many organisms be retained. The preservation of geological and geomorphological structures and is also important.

• elaboration of a law ‘On Regional Development’, which provides for the management and preservation of landscapes characteristic to each of Latvia’s regions;
• elaboration of the concept of networks of ecological corridors for Latvia and its implementation in territorial planning;
• sustainable use of scenic resources, especially for the satisfaction of recreation and tourism needs (see `Non-sustainable use of natural resources`);
• development of proposals for sectoral ministries.

protection of typical and unique landscapes and landscape elements:

Since 1977, five areas within Latvia have been declared protected landscapes because of their aesthetic and traditional rural cultural values. Unfortunately, some protected values have been lost even in these territories during the last decades.

• elaboration of criteria for determining scenic values;
• development of a classification system for protected landscapes, and establishment of a network of protected landscapes;
• development of a classification system for ecological and historic landscape elements;
• development of management plans and regulations for protected landscape areas;
• drafting of instructions and handbooks for the regional staff of environmental institutions;
• law of the Republic of Latvia ‘On regional development’, which should provide for landscape protection and the retention of landscape elements;
• ensuring the registration and protection of protected ‘noble’ stones, ‘noble’ trees and geological objects.

reduction of integral pollution (see `Transboundary pollution`, `Eutrofication of water courses and degradation of water ecosystems`,`Risks created by economic activities`, `Environmental impact of transport`, `Environmental impact of agriculture`)

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Last updated: November 8, 1996. The information prepared by Valts Vilnitis: fuxis@varam.gov.lv