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Students are Getting Ready for the Finals of the "LVM Bio-economy School" Scholarship Competition

13 March, when participants of JSC "Latvia's State Forests" (LVM) scholarship competition "LVM Bio-economy School" will present their creative video messages, is approaching. In order to get inspired and learn in nature, school students from all over Latvia were invited to take part in an exploratory forest expedition, to learn about the forest management cycle, going out to nature and visiting forestry companies.

For the 1st round of the competition, the task was to create a poster on what bio-economy is; the main theme for 2019 is "Forest for Latvia. The Next 100". The 30 scholarship contest participants who entered the 2nd round, together with Kaspars Riže, LVM Senior Forest Expert, and planner Kārlis Taukačs studied the essence of sustainable forest management in both theory and practice. Initially, the experts asked those present to test their theoretical knowledge; however, things are better done in practice, so soon everyone headed to the forest to watch different stages of forest development in life.

It is noteworthy that at the beginning of the day the Mother Nature herself had prepared a surprise for the participants of the LVM Bio-economy School - only ten metres away from the meeting place, there was a deer herd that had decided to have a lunch in the adjacent young forest stand.

"Through this competition, we want young people to realise that it is possible to combine business with nature-friendly work. We are pleased that today's young people mostly look positively at the future. In the case of Latvia, the forest is the largest renewable resource, and this is an industry that offers vast career opportunities. We organise this type of expedition and go to the forest because we want the students to see the real situation with their own eyes. We want them to see how fast the forest is growing now and how important it is to take care of it," says Līga Abizāre, Head of the School Programme.

In order to learn how wood can be used also for other purposes and not only for the production of furniture and log houses, the students visited the exhibition "Iepazīsties – koks!" (Please Meet Wood!), where together with the Kristaps Ceplis, Head of the society "Zaļās mājas", they got acquainted with the different uses of wood in medicine, construction, food and clothing production, as well as in other industries. The students were surprised by the fact that wooden buildings are not only fireproof, but also in high demand since today buildings of more than 20 storeys are built from this material.

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Participants of LVM Bio-economy School are Heading for Adventures in Forest

At the end of the day, the young people went to JSC "Latvijas Finieris" factory "Lignums" to learn about the birch plywood production process and diversity. Together with Pauls Beķeris, the Concern's Public Relations Specialist, the students became acquainted not only with the company's history, but also with the present and the future, exploring the state-of-the-art production facilities, product development processes and how the company provides waste-free production.

Until 13 March, those who have participated in the Bio-economy Expedition are encouraged to create a one-minute-long video message to their peers for the International Day of Forests, which is celebrated annually on 21 March. This year's theme is "Forest for Latvia. The Next 100". Voting for the best video will be open from 21 March to 10 April on the Facebook page "Izzini mežu, Latvija" (Learning about Forest, Latvia); just press "Like" under the published videos you like.

Bio-economy is based on three basic principles of sustainable development: nature, economy and society, and represents the transition from fossil to renewable resources. It involves the circulation of closed-loop products, where a waste product of one process is a raw material of the following process.

LVM Bio-economy School scholarship competition is organised by JSC "Latvia's State Forests" in cooperation with the society "Zaļās mājas", JSC "Latvijas Finieris", LLC "Rīgas meži".