Without detecting any damages, the Internal Security Bureau (IDB) closed the criminal case for the arbitrary cutting of trees on the eastern border in the protected nature reserve “Gulbju und Platpirova purvs”, reported TV3’s program “Neká peresika”.
More than four years ago, the State Audit found that in order to build the eastern border, trees were cut not only in the border strip, but in a larger area. This was not foreseen in the construction project. In the border strip in Cibla county’s Līdumnieku parish, not 12 meters wide, but even 80 meters wide was cut in some places. Trees growing in protected nature reserves, for which criminal liability is provided, were not spared either. The age of the felled trees in “Gulbju and Platpirova marsh” was around 170 years.
The State Environmental Service, including the information received from the Nature Protection Administration, calculated that the amount of damage caused to the environment by cutting down trees is 3,354,000 euros. However, in December 2020, VRS challenged the aforementioned decision to the State Office for Environmental Supervision, which canceled it, thus actually admitting that the losses have not been detected.
As the program reported, it can be seen from the IDB’s decision that the Geospatial Information Agency of Latvia has clarified the cadastral map and determined a much wider width of the national border strip already after the investigation started by the law enforcement authorities. Therefore, the area where the trees have been cut down is no longer legally considered a forest. This allowed the investigators to conclude that the State Border Belt Protection Law is applicable, not the Forest Law and the State Forest Service Law. Thus, the legal basis for finding arbitrary cutting of trees in the nature reserve has disappeared and the IDB has ended the criminal proceedings.
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Tags: million euros criminal case arbitrarily felling newly erected border fence closed
