The 13th OECD Rural Development Conference was held in Cavan, Ireland on 28-30 September 2022 under the theme "Building Sustainable, Resilient and Thriving Rural Places". These are the presentations from the Conference parallel session "Local Strategies for Sustainable Rural Energy Communities: Transforming Emission-Intensive Activities into Environmentally Friendly and Net-Zero Alternatives". For more information visit https://www.oecd.org/rural/rural-development-conference/.

1. Transition of Rural Communities to Environmentally
Friendly and Climate-Neutral Future
Inese Suija-Markova, Cesis Municipality, Vidzeme Planning Region, Latvia

2. What needs to be done?

3. Latvia

4. Vidzeme Region

5. Rich in natural resources

6. Gauja National Park

7. Long tradition
of agriculture
and forestry-
driven economy

9. Knowledge-driven
bioeconomy as a
smart
specialization for
the region
1. To raise awareness of bioeconomy stakeholders on the
bioeconomy and smart and sustainable use of bio resources
2. To facilitate the increase and exchange of knowledge for
businesses to develop bio-resource based products and services
3. To develop the Food Bioeconomy Cluster
4. To ensure the availability of up-to-date bioeconomy data and
information and its dissemination to the bioeconomy
stakeholders
5. To promote the improvement of bioeconomy-related policies
and strategies and their implementation tools
6. To increase the attractiveness of Vidzeme region as a
desirable location for bioeconomy innovation and a place of
investment in circular bioeconomy

10. Building bioeconomy ecosystem in Vidzeme

11. By learning, networking and knowledge
transfer

12. Mapping of key
bioeconomy
stakeholders in
Vidzeme

13. Innovation project manager (ecoRis3)

14. Innovation Co-creation Lab

15. Creating talent
for valorisation
of agricultural
by-products

16. Current challenges of rural communities to
environmentally friendly and climate-neutral future
• Removing of structural barriers
• Limited capacity (human resources, financial means, and
infrastructure), knowledge and skills
• Lack of ambitious and long-term economic development strategies
targeted towards circularity and bioeconomy, sustainable forestry
and agriculture and green energy transition

17. What is needed to get to the desirable future
in a just way?
• Culture and values
• Capacity building (knowledge, skills, infrastructure)
• Trust and cooperation at different levels – local, regional, national and
international
• Policies respecting local environmental and socio-economic conditions
developed as a result of local communities’ and stakeholders’ engagement

18. Thank you!
Inese Suija – Markova, e-mail: inese.suija@cesis.lv, www.cesis.lv, www.vidzeme.lv