Forest State Register to be offline for a week

Latvia's State Forest Service (VMD), the agency that oversees forestry and forest data, will carry out technical infrastructure upgrades on the Forest State Register to improve cybersecurity and system stability. The register will be unavailable from 20:00 on 18 October until midnight on 25 October. The outage will affect forest owners, hunters and other clients of the service.

During this period the Forest State Register (gis.vmd.gov.lv), the client e-services portal (epak.vmd.gov.lv) and interfaces with client information systems will not work. VMD asks clients to use e-services in good time. Regional forestry offices will keep serving clients, accepting and registering documents and providing answers and consultations. Questions can be sent to atbalsts@vmd.gov.lv, asked by phone on 67226600, or taken to the nearest VMD forestry office.

The "Mednis" app

From 18 to 25 October the "Mednis" app will work only partially. Users will still be able to register game animals, observations and damage, announce hunts, register harvested animals and complete hunting reports. However, the data will reach the Forest State Register only after the system is restored on 26 October. Hunters are advised to review the information in the app and send it to the register before 20:00 on 18 October, then check after restoration that everything was sent and resubmit it if necessary.

Hunters can be added to hunting districts during the outage only if they have logged in to the app beforehand. Logging in will not be possible during the outage.

Licences, samples and permits

Licence numbers for harvested ungulates or wolves will not be available in the app, which may cause difficulties in organising hunts of limited-quota game. VMD urges hunters to monitor the circulation of hunting permits carefully within their district or under their cooperation agreement.

The scientific institute BIOR will continue accepting blood samples from harvested wild boar. If an animal is taken during the outage and has no licence number, the hunter must fill in a paper cover note with name, surname, hunter's licence number, e-mail, date of the kill and location – municipality, parish and GPS coordinates.

Season cards and hunting permits cannot be bought during the outage, so hunters should buy them in advance. Hunter and hunt leader candidate exams planned for this time will be postponed, and candidates will be informed individually of new dates and venues.

Residents who want to report wild animals injured in road accidents between 18 and 25 October can leave a message on VMD's answering machine at 67212776.