Latvia

Latvia is located on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordering Estonia, Lithuania, Russia, and Belarus. Latvia's government became a parliamentary democracy after it gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Latvia has since reduced its trade dependency on Russia, and the majority of Latvia's trading is currently with member countries of the European Union (EU). Latvia joined the EU in May 2004. Since 1993 Latvia's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita has grown each year at an average rate of 5.7 percent per year.

The state of the environment in Latvia has been in transition since independence. There was significant industrial decline after the fall of the Soviet Union, [Page 1029]as much of Latvia's economy shifted to the service sector. A result was that pollution levels declined substantially. Latvia recently underwent major land reform. Almost all land in Latvia was owned by the state during the Soviet era and was restituted to its former, pre-Soviet owners after independence. Along with land restitution, Soviet-style cooperative agriculture dissolved, and smaller farms were established throughout the country. To obtain EU membership, Latvia complied with EU directives regarding nature protection and biodiversity. This process has helped lead to the current 542 protected areas, totaling 2.14 million acres (866,800 hectares), or 13.4 percent of Latvia's land territory at the end of 2002.

Latvia's largest export is wood products. Forests cover approximately 44.5 percent of the Latvian land territory, and the total forested area in Latvia has increased continuously since 1935 (except for a small decrease between 1983 and 1988). Latvia's current environmental priorities are the improvement of drinking water quality, sewage systems, household and hazardous waste management, and the reduction of air pollution.

Latvia's current population is 2.3 million. Latvia's total fertility rate (TFR) is one of the lowest in world, with 1.29 births per woman in 2003. The TFR declined from its recent high in 1987 at 2.21 to a low in 1998 at 1.11, and is now on the rise. Latvia's total population, rural population, and urban population have all declined each year since Latvia's independence. Between 1951 and 1990 there was a substantial net in migration to Latvia, primarily from other parts of the Soviet Union. Since 1991 there has been a substantial net out-migration from Latvia, most of which occurred in the few years after independence.

Ethnic Latvians constitute 59 percent of Latvia's population. Thirty-five percent are ethnic Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians, most of whom migrated to Latvia from other parts of the Soviet Union during the Soviet era or are descendents of those who migrated. Many of these migrants and their descendents were not granted Latvian citizenship after independence, primarily due to a difficult Latvian language exam required for citizenship: 20.8 percent of current Latvian residents do not have citizenship of any country. This situation has caused some tensions within the country between ethnic groups.