Latvia
Introduction
The birth of the Latvian environmental movement can be traced back to the foundation of the Latvian Society of Nature and Monument Protection in 1959. The guiding principles of the organization, including "the continuity of nature and culture," allowed it to take a visible place among organizations of the green orientation. Currently, it is one of the two largest environmental organizations in Latvia, unifying 23 local branches and more than 500 actively involved individuals.
During the awakening of the Baltics in the late 1980s and early 1990s, public attention was focused on environmental issues, and the new democratic political process gave rise to the establishment of Latvia's first grassroots environmental NGO, the Environmental Protection Club (VAK). The number of active individuals has actually decreased in recent years, although new VAK branches have emerged in several locations. In the fall of 1996, there were 47 VAK branch offices boasting 3500 activists.
The 1990s saw the development of new environmentally oriented organizations engaged in a wide spectrum of local and international activities, such as the protection of the Baltic Sea, sustainable energy use and environmental education. Examples of these NGOs are the University of Latvia Ecological Center, Children Environmental School and the Sustainable Development Center. The Latvian Nature Fund, established in 1990, now has dozens of activists including people with scientific backgrounds. Today, there are 110 active environmental NGOs regularly working in Latvia. They are distributed throughout the country, although the density of the organizations in the various regions is strongly influenced by the availability of financial resources and the character of environmental problems.
Organizational Characteristics
Most Latvian NGOs (about two-thirds) are located in small towns and villages, while about one-quarter are located in Riga, Latvia's capital city. The majority of these groups have between 10 and 25 active members, and only two have more than 500 actively involved members. More than half of the NGOs do not have any permanent paid staff, and only one-third can afford to employ up to three people. Most Latvian NGOs were founded in the late 1980s and the early 1990s; almost all (95 percent) are registered as nonprofit organizations; and many have been declared independent organizations by the board of directors of their respective umbrella organizations. Over one-third of Latvian NGOs consider themselves grassroots groups, while only three act as professional environmental organizations. The majority of Latvia's NGOs operate at the local level, and about one-third (33 percent) tackle environmental problems at the national level.
Activities
The most common activities, in order of priority, are education and training (33 percent), disseminating environmental information (25 percent), environmental fieldwork, networking with other NGOs and environmental research.
Success
More than half of the organizations evaluate their work as partially successful, and only three NGOs believe they are unsuccessful.
Financial Status
The current economic situation in Latvia is not favorable for the activities of the non-profit sector. Although there are numerous funding sources available, none of the organizations rated their financial status as very good. Instead, the majority believe themselves to be poor or very poor. Only nine organizations consider themselves financially sound enough to implement their programs. Annual budgets are in a miserable state. Most NGOs operate on budgets ranging from USD 500 to USD 5,000, and only three groups' annual budgets exceed USD 50,000.
Membership fees are not a reliable and sufficient source of finances for NGOs, and neither are national private donations. In most cases foreign grants help organizations to continue their activities, contributing from 25 percent to 50 percent of total annual budgets. At the same time, more than 50 percent of NGOs do not have access to international financial resources. Seventeen Latvian organizations acknowledged REC grants as a meaningful contribution to their activities, and eight make use of government grants. Many NGOs try to improve their financial situations by providing different services, such as training and publishing. However, this does not contribute more than 25 percent of any one NGO's budget.
Needs and Problems
The most frequently mentioned problems in Latvia are similar to those experienced in the rest of CEE: insufficient funding, limited access to means of communication, lack of volunteers, the general weakness of the environmental movement, and general legal problems, most of which are related to excessive taxation issues.
NGOs highlighted the following training needs as most important: fund raising, strategic planning, project management skills, and networking and cooperation. The results clearly show that organizations would like to be more self-sustainable but simply lack the knowledge of how to run a successful organization. Financial and technical support for the implementation of local environmental projects is the most important need overall.
Cooperation
Cooperation is the cornerstone of successful development, either in the NGO community, the public sector or the government. Information exchange is currently the most common type of cooperation in Latvia. More than one-third of Latvian organizations do not cooperate outside the country in any form. Personal contact seems to be one of the most effective means of establishing cooperation on an organizational level and might be developed further into joint projects. Joint projects with Western NGOs are more attractive, especially from a financial point of view; projects on the national level are second-most popular, and third place goes to cooperative projects in the CEE region. Hopefully, the REC's new policy in support of regional cooperation will encourage NGOs to begin projects involving East-East (CEE) cooperation. It is encouraging that 25 percent of Latvian NGOs are able to find partners on the local level, and more than half the groups cooperate occasionally with the national government or its agencies, but NGOs admit that cooperation on the state level is the most difficult. Most NGOs acknowledge the importance of cooperation within Latvia, while cooperation with NGOs in neighboring countries and with Western organizations are both seen as equally important. Although challenging, all NGOs see cooperation with government authorities as the key to success.
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