OREANDA-NEWS. October 12, 2009. Forestry will be vital to the future of Latvia, according to one expert. Writing for the Baltic Times, Olga James explained that the timber industry and related sectors have made up a crucial part of the country's economic structure for many years and will continue to do so, KMS Baltics reported.

However, changing technologies mean that new ways of working might have to be found, she stated.

For example, the advent of biomass power generation could help provide the country with another source of income, Ms James explained.

This, and traditional uses, should help ensure the sector rebounds strongly when the global economy starts to recover, she claimed.

Ms James said: "From the investment perspective, as the development of Latvian wood product manufacturing, using wood from Latvian forests has been a major industrial success story in the past years; the sector is likely to attract fresh foreign direct investment flows as soon as the situation on the global markets stabilises."